One Act of Kindness
by domo9
Summary: Naruto has had a tough life. Losing his parents at a young age, he struggles to fit in with others. How will he deal with his struggles and depression? Can he be saved? Eventual SasuNaruSasu AU /non massacre/ other warnings inside.
1. Chapter 1

Hey everyone! This is my newest story. I took a break from writing for a little while, as not to wear out muse. Thanks to anyone who read my last story, _Changes_ feedback from that was **greatly** appreciated. I hope that you guys like my newest story, and to prevent being late in my updates, I am going to try and set dates for when I have to do these. I have a lot of stuff to do, so I will be updating this every one to two weeks on friday.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

Please review!

_Naruto covered himself as he backed away, a large figure looming over him. "Heh, stupid kid. Thought you could get away, didn't you?" the man grabbed for Naruto, but was surprised by the small child kicking back at him. The man stumbled away is Naruto got up and ran. He ran and ran and ran. Lungs burning he didn't dare look back. He ended up in front of his neighbor, Kakashi's house. Pounding on the door, Naruto screamed for him to come out._

_The man slowly walked to the door, "What do you want, Naruto... it's," the man checked his watch, "three in the morning." Naruto calmed down his breath. "We-we just got robbed, an-and I don't think mom and dad are gonna be okay..." the boy started to break down in tears. Kakashi abruptly moved away, running to the phone. Dialing 911, he explained the situation, and help arrived within minutes the police force arrived._

_The two headed back to Naruto's house. By the time they were there, the police had already been in his house. An ambulance arrived with medics. That had given Naruto hope. But it was soon crushed, when he saw the status that his parents were in. He began to sob uncontrollably. Kakashi picked him up and soothed the small boy. "Everything is going to be fine, Naruto. It'll be alright." Naruto nodded. Looking back to his parents he was surprised to see them okay. He ran to them. But... they sounded odd, they almost moaned in their talk, "Naruto... how could you leave us?" they asked together, "Why did you not save us?" they began to yell, "You coward!" He tried to turn away, but was greeted with the horrid sight of their battered, bloody bodies._

"AAH!" Naruto awoke in a rush. Breathing heavily, he slowly got up.

That had been the third time this month that he'd had that awful dream. After being in the adoption system and hopping from guardian to guardian for six years_, _Naruto had been adopted by Iruka. Originally, he thought Kakashi would adopt him, but the man had regretfully said, "I'm sorry Naruto, but I barely have enough money to live in my cheap house. I'd hate give you any less space or food, and you're a great kid. I'm sure there's a better fit family for you out there."

Iruka had been a great father figure to him. He was going to be an instructor at the nearby high-school which Naruto would be enrolling in at the end of this month. When it had all happened, Naruto had been ten. He had stayed in the adoption system until he was sixteen. Quickly growing a strong bond with Iruka, the two got along very well. He would be a junior at the school, and would be entering a month late. It would be inconvenient for Naruto to be there late in the year, but Iruka had to move closer to the high-school as he had been laid off from his previous job, and lived close, but not close enough to it.

Iruka had been worried though. He had thought of homeschooling Naruto because of his troubled childhood. A few of the homes he had been in had been not been the best to Naruto, leaving him with emotional scars. He just hoped that this school would be kind to him.

Waking up early was _not_ Naruto's thing. As the alarm beeped loudly, Naruto swatted at it, but failed miserably. A loud thud echoed about the room as the boys body hit the floor. "Damn stupid technology waking me up..." the boy hit blindly at his alarm, finally turning it off. Iruka called up the stairs, "Naruto! Today's the first day of school. I've gotta leave in a bit or else I'm going to be late, so unless you want to take the bus, or walk, I suggest you get your butt down here!" Naruto was startled awake by that. He'd almost forgotten how early school started. He got up off the floor, and ran to the bathroom. Taking a quick shower combing his hair, as it had begun to grow out over his eyes, grabbing his glasses, then hurrying back to get dressed. He put on concealer over his whisker scars, as he'd grown self-conscious about them, his favorite orange button up shirt, leaving it unbuttoned to show his black shirt underneath. He threw on a pair of jeans, and ran down the stairs, grabbing a piece of toast Iruka had prepared. Stepping into his skateboarding shoes, Naruto grabbed his backpack and called to his dad, "I'm ready!" the man replied with a, "Wow, record time, ten minutes."

They jumped into the car, and headed off for the high-school. Arriving there in about five minutes, Iruka walked into the building, followed by Naruto. He took the boy into the office and introduced him to Tsunade, the principle. The woman greeted him, and handed him his schedule, "This will be your schedule for the rest of the year, we tried to get you into the classes you wanted, but on such short notice, you're lucky to get the ones you wanted!"

Period one: Art, Deidera.

Period two: Gym, Maito, G.

Period three: Advanced math, pre-calculus, Hatake, K.

Period four: Advanced social studies: Sarutobi, A.

Period five: Lunch A, Study B, Umino, I

Period six: Language arts, Umino, I.

Period seven: Biology, Orochimaru.

Period eight: Culinary arts: Yuuhi, K.

Naruto looked over his schedule, and began to leave. Tsunade just told him that if he had any questions, he could come back and ask her. Naruto walked through the school, getting adjusted to his new surroundings. He walked to his locker, and started to pack up his stuff.

With hanging up a few pictures, shelves, his books, binders, pencil bags, gym clothes, and his lunch, he was finally finished. It was around 7 when teens began flooding the building. There had been a few who had come early, nobody near his locker, though. He hadn't been told who he would be sharing his locker with, but he was sure they would get along fine.

As people came towards his locker, he waited and waited to see if his locker buddy would come along. He didn't, so he stood up and looked down at his schedule, couldn't be too hard to find his room, right? Wrong.

He had enough time to talk to the teacher by the time he arrived, but not as much as he'd like. He went up to the... woman? Long hair tied up in a ponytail, and draping over the right eye was what he was greeted with as the teacher turned around. "Hello," the person greeted, "are you new here?" Naruto nodded, and explained his situation. Deidera nodded, and told him, "Naruto, you can sit back there." he pointed, " And just to tell you, I'm a man." he laughed as Naruto walked away awkwardly. Today was going to be odd.

Thanks for reading! Hope you like the plot so far, and please REVIEW!


	2. Chapter 2

Hey everyone! Hope you like where the story is going, and thanks to anyone who reviewed!

So far I am one chapter ahead, so when I finish this, I will post the first one XD

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/ Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

Please review!

Naruto had begun to sketch with the time he'd gotten before everyone arrived. Students began entering the room, some staring up at Naruto in curiosity. Deidera called him down, and he introduced himself. "Hi," he said, waving his hand, "I just moved from the next town over to the west- he was interrupted as a spitball was flung at him. Turning red, he asked to leave for the bathroom. He was granted permission, and the boy who did it was reprimanded. Naruto got back quickly, and sat back in his seat. Getting back to his art, he listened to the teacher as he drew. Right now, they were studying further into the color spectrum.

The bell rang, and Naruto headed to his gym class. Grabbing his gym clothes, he headed off. He found an empty locker, and put his stuff in it. Changing quickly before anyone was in, Naruto looked back to his schedule before locking up his locker. He had Maito-sensei for his gym teacher. Students began to enter the room, as Naruto was leaving. He headed to the gym to meet his new teacher. Someone grabbed his shoulder, and Naruto went into defense mode, elbowing them in the stomach and turning to run. He was shocked to see who looked to be a gym teacher on the ground in pain. "Oh god, I-I'm so sorry!" Naruto quickly apologized, helping the man up. Eyes still wide, he got a good look at the man. Tennis-shoes, and a green jumpsuit, along with a garish bowl cut. Naruto thought of that as quite an odd sight.

"Sorry to have shocked you, there boy. Maybe you should join the boxing club, ne?" he joked. "No thanks, I-I really don't like fighting." he responded. "I'm new here, and was just wondering what I should be doing?" Gai responded, "Oh, how great! A new, youthful student! Right now, we're doing track, so what we do is walk around for about three minutes before we sit in our attendance lines. After that, we'll be heading down to the track field." he finished. Naruto nodded, and began walking around the gym, not in any group with students, rather, he was walking alone. Shoved around by some passing by students, he was relieved that he would finally be able to sit down and get this all over with.

Gym went by normally, and Naruto did surprisingly well in track. With the people he had to live with, Naruto had learned to run _very_ fast. Gym was over, and Naruto sprinted back, got changed, and walked quickly to his next class.

Naruto stopped by his locker, and grabbed his pre-calc book along with his binder, and pencils. Talking with the teacher, he then easily blended in with the class, and easily answered the questions asked of him. He headed on to social studies doing the same, talking to the teacher, not talking very much. Naruto walked to lunch, and sat at the empty end of a table. Heading to his study hall, he greeted Iruka, and sat quietly, doing his homework. Someone walked over to Naruto, asking him a couple questions on the homework, Naruto answered with ease, and continued on to his next class. He didn't need to talk to his teacher, as he was his dad. Iruka told him where to sit, and introduced him to the class. They began writing about a time in their life when something went wrong, Naruto had this one down, so many for him to chose.

He headed to biology, and introduced himself to the teacher. He sat down, and did the required work. Heading to his culinary arts class, he took to a station, and watched the instructor, doing as she did.

Day in and day out, the same routine developed. Over and over again. That is, until a couple students took a certain dis-liking to him. They teased him for his hair, being bright as it is, his bandages, his glasses, his lack of blood-relatives, teasing him for reasons that made no sense at all. Pushing him around some days. He might get off easy some days, but mostly, he lived quite the miserable life.

Months and months passed by with no friends, only Iruka. One day Iruka came home with a surprise though. It was already may, but neither had shown anyone but themselves into their home. This time, though, Naruto was surprised. It was Kakashi. He saw the man every day in his classroom, but with how the man dressed at school, he hardly recognized him. Kakashi always wore his hair down, and had an eye patch at school, but in Naruto's neighborhood, as a child, Kakashi never had an eye patch. When he came over he had his normal hair, and although his eye looked a bit odd, he had no eye patch.

"K-kakashi," Naruto paused, "is that you?" he questioned. The man responded with a simple "Yes, of course I am, Naruto. Who else would I be?" The boy responded with a, "No... I mean," he began to wipe away his makeup, glasses, and swept his hair to the side, "you were my neighbor! The one who helped me so long ago!" With this, Kakashi was shocked. From when he was younger, to now, Naruto looked so different. Not only with his glasses, longer hair, and those odd scars, but his overall facial features. The whisker like markings made Kakashi curious, but he figured he could question Iruka later. "Naruto!" the man yelled, pulling Naruto into a hug, "It's been so long!" Iruka stared awkwardly at the two, and slowly began to move away to make dinner. Naruto joined the man in the kitchen, and asked why he was over. At this, Iruka began to get a tinge redder.

"W-well... you see," he began, "uh, Kakashi was planning to come over here on a," he got far quieter, "date." Naruto couldn't hear him, "What?" he asked. "What did you say?" At this point, Kakashi jumped in, and spoke "I was planning on taking Iruka here, on a date, but he insisted that we not go out, and eat here instead." Naruto was in shock to put it simply. "Wait so you... you're..." he faded out. "Gay? That would be a yes." Iruka spurted out, finally getting up the guts to say so. "Cool. I think I'll just leave you two alone then." he said, heading back up to his room.

Finding someone like him made him happier, holding off the depression that was soon to come. He had started to seep into it, but this would hold it off for a while.

Throughout the summer, Naruto would go to the pool to do laps, gaining a great amount of strength in swimming.

After returning to school again, he had a fairly similar schedule.

Period one: Gym, Maito G.

Period two: 3D art, Deidera.

Period three biology: Uchiha, I.

Period four: Culinary arts II, Yuuhi, K.

Period five: Study A, Uchiha, I. Lunch B.

Period six: Advanced language arts, Jiraiya.

Period seven: Advanced math, calculus, Sarutobi, H.

Period eight: Advanced social studies, Yamanaka, I.

Well, this would be a long year.

Hope you liked it! PM me with any ideas, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!


	3. Chapter 3

Hey everyone! I've seen the reviews for my first chapter... four in the first day! This makes my need to write crazy XD

Hope you like the story, and please please please REVIEW! :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/ Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

He had gotten fairly used to the whole idea of his school. At first, getting pushed around and named called was an awful thing for Naruto, but at this point, he had gotten quite used to it. He had three of the same teachers, so that would be nice for him. He liked his teachers, and was glad that they couldn't hold anything against him, unlike the other students. Again, day by day was just the same. Nothing really happened. That is, until someone took it a little too far.

Naruto had just been walking down the hallway when another person had shoved him. Verbal insults came about, and Naruto was ready to run away, just get up and leave for home. But he didn't. He had to make Iruka proud. So he just dusted himself off and headed to his next class. And he was fine for the next few weeks. Nothing major happened. Just the usual little stuff. Maybe a little teasing, a bit of pushing. But Naruto was starting to get annoyed with it all. He just wanted it to end. For this all to stop happening, for him to lead a _normal_ life. But that couldn't happen, right?

After a few weeks of little stuff, the guys got worse. Ganging up on him more often. So much that Naruto was starting to get bruises. Mental _and_ physical ones. He was sent spiraling into a deep depression. Day after day he felt like just staying home. But he wouldn't want to upset Iruka. So as the bullying got worse and worse, he devised a plan. A bad one.

Kakashi and Iruka were happy with each other, right? So if they were happy, then that would mean that he wasn't needed, right? If he wasn't needed, then why stay around? He was doing fine in school with grades, but he needed to face it. He had no life, and he probably never would no one likes a coward. He ran when he could've saved them, maybe he could finally meet them? Naruto got out a paper and pencil. Beginning to write the note was hard. What could he tell them? He couldn't have them thinking they could do anything to save them. That wasn't possible as far as Naruto knew.

Dear Iruka,

I'm sorry. Don't ever think that this was your fault. It wasn't. If you'd like, you can blame the people who bullied me. Wait no, don't. I blame myself. I made myself be this way. The fact that I bounced around from families that were less than okay may have helped. But I'm done with it all. At this point, I see this as my only way out.

You may not have been my real father, but you have been the best one I could've had,

Naruto.

He guessed that would have to do. He sat down and tucked his note away. His father always kept arts and crafts around, so some rope wouldn't be hard to find. Drifting off into a lightly blissful sleep, for once, Naruto was content. Waking up the next morning, he was positively cheerful. He would get to meet his parents. He would be free of this waste of existence.

Getting driven to school, Naruto tried to act casual, talking to Iruka as normal, lucky for Naruto, Iruka had to stay late to tutor someone. They arrived and both went on their way. He then went on to his first hour class. The hours drifted by in a blur. It was like Naruto was on auto-pilot, just letting his sub-conscience take control. Even when the other students gave him a hard time, Naruto was as happy as happy could be.

Walking back to his locker, Naruto was surprised to see a couple of his teachers together, talking. It was Itachi and Deidera. He inched a bit closer, and heard a soft, "Aren't you worried, Itachi?" Deidera questioned, "He's been so down lately, but today, he'd just... off." Itachi thought about it, "Yes. You're right. I've grown to like that boy, no matter what happens, he's always standing up and not giving in."

This made Naruto a bit happier. Knowing people cared would mean that he wouldn't be all alone at his funeral, if he even had one. He packed up all his things. His shelves, books, and pictures. Stuffing what he could into his bag, and carrying the rest, he went on his way. Hurrying to get to his bus, Naruto was having trouble carrying his things.

He jolted and fell, followed by a commotion of laughter. Slowly beginning to get back up, he felt around for his glasses, when suddenly, someone handed them to him. He was in shock, "What?" he asked, confused. The other boy began to help pick up his stuff, offering him a hand. "T-thanks..." Naruto said, trailing off, still very confused. Still holding his hand, he walked with Naruto towards his bus, and sat down, motioning for the boy to follow him. The boy held out his one free hand for Naruto to shake, "I'm Sasuke Uchiha," he said, "nice to meet you." Once again, Naruto was in shock, why would someone be so nice to him? "Hello?" the boy said, confused as to why Naruto wasn't responding. "O-oh... sorry, I-I'm Naruto Uzumaki," he said, slowly putting his hand out to shake it, "pleasure to meet you." he said timidly, holding his hand as if the other boy's hand would harm him in some way. He cringed as Sasuke's hand shook his hand, and was shocked to find that his hand was unharmed. Now after looking more at the boy, Naruto blushed a bit, he hadn't really thought of his sexuality at all, he had more thought of himself as bi-sexual, not really caring, as long as someone would care for him.

Well, as it turned out, the two of them were on the same bus, and had the same bus stop, and he was kind enough to walk him home. Naruto was feeling much better. He would have hated for Sasuke to feel that it was his fault, so Naruto figured that he would just end it in maybe a week, after Sasuke had seen what a loser he was. But, so Naruto's surprise, Sasuke actually had a few classes with him, art, math, language arts, and gym. That would meant that he had seen most of what happened, what a shock that was to Naruto. And another great surprise was on it's way- Sasuke wanted to hang out again.

Thanks for reading! Please review!


	4. Chapter 4

Hi everyone! Glad to see a good response from how many visitors and hits I've got! :'D

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy!

Please review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/ Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

"Wait... let me get this straight, _you_, Uchiha Sasuke, want to hang out, with_ me_?" the boy asked, clearly puzzled. "Yeah, do you not want to, because you know if you don't-" he started, but was cut off by Naruto saying, "Oh no, I just didn't really understand why you'd... you know... want to..." the boy trailed off. "Well why not, I mean you seem like a cool guy, you're not like a mass murderer or anything, right?" he joked. Naruto looked left and right in mock worry, "How did you know?" he whispered, still looking around suspiciously, Sasuke responded, "I can see it... in your _eyes_." that was the point when they burst out in laughter, leaning on the walls for support.

Iruka stood back a bit, not wanting them to know he was there. Naruto hadn't had a friend this close since he'd ever lived with Iruka, he thought he'd just leave the two alone. He could have a talk with Sasuke about a few things later.

Things were looking up for once. Naruto finally had someone he could trust. The next day, he brought everything back with him to school, and had a _great_ day. The two talked all day in the periods they shared. In art and gym, they were aloud to sit anywhere, and in language arts, they were about to have a seat change, and Jiraiya let them chose who they sat by.

During Gym, the two ran together. They were in track, and just talked about things they liked. Video games, movies, their favorite foods, drinks, things to do, the list went on and on. Sasuke was a bit concerned when Naruto went into one of the bathroom stalls to change, wondering if he was just self-conscious, or if there was something the boy was embarrassed about. Oh well, he'd ask later, when the two were better friends, and the two could trust each other more.

The two sat together in art, and talked, they talked of what they would draw, pieces they had made, and things they had been envisioning. Deidera had been talking of a project for his class to make, it was a time to make a very artful sculpture of something that happened in your life. He allowed them to get in small groups and talk about what they would draw. Sasuke didn't really have any other friends, he had quite a few fan girls, and a few classmates that he talked to every-so-often, but no really close friends. Shikamaru and Hinata came over to sit with them. Sasuke then introduced them, "Naruto. This," he said, pointing to the girl, "is Hinata, and this," he said, pointing to the boy, "is Shikamaru." Naruto nodded, and held out his hand to shake with the both of them. "I'm Naruto," he said, "nice to meet you!" he said, smiling lightly.

The four of them talked for a while, talking about emotional things that had effected them. "When I was little I remember how I had to move, I didn't have any friends for quite some time. I was just all alone, until Itachi told me to go out and try to be friends with people. I still didn't really have any _close _friends, but I wasn't exactly a loner anymore." he smiled. Shikamaru talked, "When I was little, my mother always got mad at me, telling me of how I was just like my dad, being extrememly lazy, so one time, she sent me out to the park. I really didn't want to go, but I found one of my classmates sitting all alone, it was Chouji. If she hadn't done that, I never would've become as close friends with him. When I saw him all alone, I decided to sit and talk with him, and watch the clouds. We still do that." he finished, with a grin on his face. Hinata timidly began, "I remember when I was little I was always bossed around, and thought I wasn't good enough. My father expected more of me then I could give. But from seeing another boys determination at my school, I tried even harder to achieve my goals, and with that, I got where I wanted to be in my grades, physical ability, and art." she told aloud, proudly, "I actually think it was you, Naruto, did you go to Konoha Elementary School?" she asked. "Umm... actually, I think I did." he said, pondering the question. "Then it _was_ you! You were the reason I achieved what I did!" she smiled, "But I didn't see you anymore after fourth grade." she said, sadly. Naruto thought they deserved to know what happened, he thought they seemed to be people he could trust, even become friends with.

So Naruto began explaining it in as little detail as possible, "Well, there was a home invasion, and I had just gotten home from school. I walked in, not knowing what was going on, and was confronted by the man. I ran as fast as I could out of there, and got help from my neighbor, Kakashi, but by the time we got back, it was too late. I lost both of my parents, and had to go to the only orphanage, out near Suna, and went to a school there. But I was adopted by Iruka not too long ago, and moved back here." Everyone there was in shock. They all looked sad, obviously feeling bad for him, "It's fine, really, guys. It happened a while ago, and I'm over it." he said, trying to get them to stop staring. He didn't like it when people stared at him. Sensing his discomfort, the others tried to talk of something more cheerful, but the mood was obviously ruined. Good thing class was almost over.

Naruto then went to his science class with Itachi. Apparently he was Sasuke older brother. From just a glance, it was very obvious. He went to sit down, and listened intently to the lecture. He'd always liked science. Taking down a good amount of notes the whole class, before he knew it, class was over. He walked up to leave, but was stopped by Itachi. "You're Naruto, correct?" he asked. Naruto nodded. "Sasuke has talked about you, you're new here, right?" he asked. Naruto nodded again, "Yeah, I got here last year." The man responded, "Well, I was wondering if we could have you and your family over for dinner some time. Sasuke really seems to like you, and he could really use a friend." Now that made Naruto happy, "Sure! I'm sure Iruka would be glad to come over sometime!" Itachi continued, "I'll tell Sasuke about it, and I'm sure the two of you can work out a date for it!" he finished gleefully.

Naruto then quickly walked away. One, to get to his next class. Two, because he was blushing. Why was he blushing? Sasuke's _brother_ had just called what they would have a _date_. A _**date**__. _Trying to clear his mind, Naruto thought only of his work, but that wouldn't work for long. Study hall. After the next class, they had study hall, and lunch. _'Damn it...'_ the boy thought, _'I finally get _one_ close friend, and he's going to _hate_ me if he finds out about this!'_

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it, and please review! =D


	5. Chapter 5

Hi guys! Thanks to anyone who reviewed! I've already gotten four, just for the last chapter! :'D  
>Reviews are greatly appreciated!<p>

Oh, and for anyone who thinks I'm updating too slowly, well too bad! I have a lot of stuff to do, and I try to write a new chapter once every Friday. I have one in store so that if I don't finish my chapter by the Friday, then I can just pull out the one I finished the previous week. I would love to update twice a week, but I don't want to rush it. I want to take this all slow so I don't screw up the plot line too much, as I published chapter 4, I've already started on chapter 6.

Hope you like the story, and please review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/ Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

Naruto hurried along, hoping not to run into Sasuke on his way to his culinary arts class. Today, at least, he was in luck. He'd left early enough that he'd avoided Sasuke. Walking very quickly, he arrived at his class quite early. Sitting down in the back of the room like usual, he started sketching out something for his art class. He'd come up with an idea a while ago. He was going to draw the orphanage that he would come and go from, but his drawing was interrupted when someone sat next to him, jarring his drawing a bit. He erased the skewed lines, and looked up to see it was none other than Shikamaru, with Chouji on his way too. "Hey," he smiled, "what's up?" The two looked happy to see him, Shikamaru responded, telling them of how troublesome school was, and from Chouji, how he couldn't wait for lunch. Ah, lunch. That would be a bit of a problem for Naruto. Would he sit with Sasuke and his friends? Or would that be an embarrassment for them?

Class started, and they worked on learning the basics of cakes. The ingredients you'll always need, and those that you can put in if you like. They would go over this for another day, and then after the weekend, they would make a cake.

Packing up his stuff, Naruto headed off to his study hall class, working on his art project, he was again interrupted, but this time, by Sasuke. Naruto continued to draw, finishing his line. He looked up, and greeted Sasuke, "Hi." The boy responded, "Hey. Itachi mentioned something to me as I came in, and I was just wondering if it would be okay with you too? I'd really like to have you over sometime, and I thought dinner would be nice?" he finished, unsure of his own words. Naruto grew a bit pink, thinking of what Itachi had said earlier, but swatted the thought away. "Sure, I'm pretty sure Iruka wants to meet your parents, and all- I've only known him for a short while, but I already know that he's a bit of a mother-hen." he smiled. "I don't know what we'll have for dinner, but I certainly hope mother doesn't overdo it again. Last time I had someone over, Shikamaru and I did a book project together, she made a _huge_ meal! There were so many things to choose from!" Sasuke told him. "Well, it probably wouldn't be a problem," he laughed, "I eat a lot! I kind of grew up on a low budget, so whenever food was available, it'd be all gone." Sasuke frowned at this. He knew about Naruto being in the system for a while, but they had plenty of food, right? He guessed this would have to be yet another question for later.

The bell rang. The two hadn't realized it, but they had been talking the whole period. The two headed off to their lockers, and then in the hall. Then it hit Naruto- should he ask Sasuke about lunch? As Naruto pondered this, Sasuke was thinking the very same thing. Should he ask Naruto to sit with him? Or did he already have somewhere to sit? "Naruto," began, Naruto looked towards him, "do you want to sit with me at lunch?" the boy asked, looking at the floor. Naruto looked at him in light shock, "Really?" he asked, smiling. "Well yeah, you _are_ my friend, right?" Naruto happily nodded, and the two went on to lunch, happy to have that over with.

The two arrived at the lunch table, it seated 12 people, eight of which were filled. Sasuke usually sat down, followed by Ino and Sakura sitting next to him, no matter where they were previously. Having a friend to sit next to was quite the advantage for him now. On one side from right to left sat Kiba, Hinata, Chouji, and Shikamaru. Sasuke sat next to Shikamaru, and motioned for Naruto to join them. Displeased that 'their' seats were taken and useless now, Ino and Sakura settled for being across from Sasuke. Across from Naruto was Ino, then Sakura, TenTen. Soon after lunch started, Lee sat next to TenTen, followed by Neji, and Shino. Everyone at the table was fairly surprised by the newcomer. They were staring at him. Naruto looked down, in obvious discomfort. Sasuke looked over to everyone and motioned for them to not look. Naruto got up to get a spoon, lucky for Sasuke. "Okay," he began quickly, "don't stare at him to much, it makes him uncomfortable, something happened when he was little. Don't be too pushy, and I'll try to explain later." They nodded, and went back to what they were doing.

Naruto came back, and sat down, at this point, Sasuke took the opportunity to introduce him. "Okay, guys," he began, "this, here is Naruto. Don't know if you've met him before, but here he is." he finished, sort of awkwardly. A few of the group looked over to him, and began talking to him, asking where he was from. He responded that he was from not too far away, just a village a bit to the west of here. And Ino, being the inquisitive type, began barraging him with loads of questions, "So who do you live with? Are your parents divorced? Why's your hair over your eyes? Why's your skin all blotchy? How did you meet Sasuke?" It was almost like the questions never ended. That reminded him of something; the place he used to stay at. It was one of the many houses he had been adopted to, the place that gave him his whisker-like marks.

_It had been a long day. Naruto opened the door, and collapsed on the couch. The school he was going to gave him _so _much work. He then went up to his room, he wasn't supposed to stay anywhere other than his room for too long. His 'guardians' hated to have him out. He questioned why they even adopted him in the first place. The boy sat on his bed, and waited for them to come home. Sometimes they would be drunk, or high, even. They would usually have a bit of _fun _by smacking him around, hitting and kicking him. That night had been even worse. His foster dad was a tattoo artist, and would sometimes come home with some of the ink, throwing it onto Naruto during their fights. It didn't stay on forever, as it wasn't imbedded into his skin, but it would stick for a day or two, unless he scrubbed his skin raw, getting it off. That night had been terrible. His dad had begun to fight, but Naruto had become fairly strong from the past fights, being able to fight back, so this time, he grabbed him and held him still. Pulling out his knife, he began to scratch at the boy's face, leaving his whisker-like marks. But Naruto began to run, mad at him getting away, the man threw ink at him, hitting him in the face, and covering his wounds in it._

Sasuke was getting worried. Ever since Ino started asking questions, Naruto was just staring out into space. Sasuke tried to grab Naruto's but was pushed back when Naruto grabbed his arm, and threw him down. Shocked by his own reaction, Naruto began to apologize immensely. This cause of actions shocked everyone, what happened when he was little to make him do this? That question sat in everyone's head at that table. What _really_ happened?

Thanks for reading! =D

Hope you liked the chapter! Please review!


	6. Chapter 6

Hey! Thanks to anyone who reviewed! Hope you like the story, and to anyone who thinks it's going to fast, I'm not going to shove them into a relationship, just to let you know. Naruto knows he likes Sasuke, but Sasuke doesn't know that, and he's unsure of what to do himself.

Enjoy, and please review! :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/ Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

As the boy apologized, he easily lifted Sasuke to a standing position, still saying how sorry he was. Sasuke brushed it off, "It's fine, really! You didn't mean to, right?" he asked, which was immediately responded with a clear "No!" Sasuke then began to slowly sit back down into his chair, obviously sore. Naruto was obviously feeling down, no matter what Sasuke said to try and cheer him up. "Listen, Naruto," he began, Naruto turned to him, "I don't know _why_ that happened, what you did back there, but it's not your fault! You acted in defense, and it's _my_ fault for startling you!" Naruto was in shock. He still felt bad, but Sasuke always knew how to make him feel better. "Thanks... I still feel bad, though, I mean, I really shouldn't have done that. I've got to get better with it, I mean, I did the same thing to Gai-sensei. He got right back up, but what if it had been worse?" Naruto was clearly upset now, but Sasuke wasn't going to give up. "Naruto, although it's not the best thing, that'll come in handy! What if that happens when there's someone who's actually _going _to harm you?" That made Naruto feel a bit better. This was the point when Shikamaru stepped in, "Guys, it's time to go now." The two jumped up, threw out their garbage, and hurried on to language arts.

After stopping to get their stuff, they were just barely late. As they stepped in, the bell rung, the two blended in to the group of standing students. "Now everyone pick a partner, and I'll assign where you will sit." their teacher voiced. Sasuke and Naruto got together, along with many other students. Lucky for them, there were a few other people they knew in the class, unfortunately, Sakura was put across from them, but at least she was paired with Hinata. No work would be done in that arrangement, except for Hinata's, of course. Jiraiya got right down into their work. They had to write about something they had to overcome in life. For most people, that was easy- little things, or big things, everyone had something that was trouble for them. Sasuke wrote of how he overcame the troubles with his dad's expectations of him versus Itachi, Hinata wrote of hers, also, and Sakura wrote of how she overcame the taunts when she was younger with the help of a friend. But this was a bit harder for Naruto.

Like the art project, this brought up many past memories. Naruto had so many things he wanted to talk about, and only one writing assignment. Of course, he wouldn't ever tell all the things to a class, maybe Sasuke, Shikamaru even, but not the class. He would write of how he overcame the bullying. Even in elementary and middle school, Naruto was ridiculed. He was different, and because of that, he was an easy target. He wrote, and wrote, and before he knew it, he'd covered two pages full of thoughts and feelings. Most people had a short paper, but Naruto's would be quite long by the time it was done.

The bell rung, and Naruto began to pick up his stuff and head to his next class, when he tried to reach over to get his paper, he was alarmed to see nothing there. He looked around, and was surprised to see the teacher reading it. "Good work, kid." he said, sounding pleased. "Th-thanks," he stuttered, "can I have it back? I'd rather not be late to math class." The man nodded, handing him the paper, and Naruto left for his next class. Naruto got in class, and sat down, getting out his art piece, yet again. He had been getting along quite well with it, sketching out the general design of it, slowly adding detail after detail. It wasn't due for about a month, but Naruto still wanted to put in as much heart as he possibly could. He sensed someone behind him, and tensed up. Seeing this, Sasuke spoke, "Just me, Naruto." he began, "Looks really nice, but... what exactly is it?" Naruto hadn't written the building name on it yet, and replied, "It's the orphanage I used to stay at. I've been working on drawing this, so I can make a proper sculpture of it." Sasuke thought that was a good idea. Everyone had made sketches of theirs, but no one had gone into such detail as Naruto had. But, they were interrupted, as class had begun.

Math went by in a blur, yet again, it was an easier subject for Naruto, and he usually got his homework done during class, the boy hardly ever had any homework. The bell rung yet again, another hour gone by. He then headed off to Social Studies, yet another simple, easy class. The whole class was almost always taking notes. Note after note after note. Naruto didn't mind it, as it was less work than any of the other classes, but it was _so boring._ At least he had _something_ to look forward to. After school, when he got home at 2:30, Naruto was to clean his room, and do any other work around the house that was needed. Then, he was to take a shower, get dressed in a bit nicer clothes, and wait for Iruka to get home. He would then do the same, and they would leave for Sasuke's house. Naruto was in and out. He was doing work, but so unfocused, almost not there. He was writing the things down, but not hearing anything, or really knowing of what he was writing. And yet again, before he knew it, the bell had rung. It made him jump a bit. Startled, he packed his stuff up, and pushed his chair in.

Grabbing his bag, he walked to the bus, and was dreaming, so glad that the day was over, and that he would be going over to his friend's house. His _friend's_ house. Sasuke came to sit by him, and he didn't notice. "Naruto." Sasuke said, "Hello?" The boy jumped. "Wah!" he exclaimed, surprised yet another time. Sasuke apologized, and the two rode home in silence, not wanting to voice their excitement of what was to come.

Naruto walked home, and went straight into his room, cleaning it up. Grabbing up clothes, and making his bed, straightening things in general. He went downstairs, gathered the laundry, and began to wash a load. He then did the dishes. Scrubbing them clean, he was happy to see he still had enough time to get himself ready. The boy then went into his room, picking out what to wear. He would wear his everyday shoes, his pinstripe blue button-up shirt, and a pair of slimmer-fitting straight leg jeans. _'Perfect.'_ the boy thought. Heading in to shower, he cleansed himself, and shaved. Grabbing a new set of bandages, boxers, and his glasses, he began to get dressed. As he was about to dry his hair, he heard a loud, "I'm home!" It was Iruka. Naruto grabbed the hair-dryer and set it into his bedroom, giving Iruka the bathroom.

Iruka headed over to his bedroom, then out, going in to take a shower, too. The man then came out, it was already 4:10 p.m. The Uchiha family had told them to come over at 4:30, so Iruka got the hair-dryer from Naruto, and fixed his hair up. The two left at 4:20, in a hurry, and arrived at their destination at exactly 4:29. Great. Right on time.

Hope you liked it! Please review!


	7. Chapter 7

Hey! Thanks to anyone who reviewed, and all of you readers!

Hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/ Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

The two had just arrived at Sasuke's house. Two things were dancing around in Naruto's head; one, this house is _huge_, and two, I'm _actually_ going over to a friends house. The two were quite uncommon things for him. He'd only had one or two real friends, and both of them were the opposite of rich. Walking slowly across the long walkway, he finally got to the door. Raising his hand slowly to the door, he paused for a bit, thinking on how he should knock, when Iruka came up behind him, and just rang the doorbell. Embarrassed, Naruto stepped back, and waited. He then heard footsteps coming down the stairs of the large house, and coming towards the door. Naruto waited anxiously, wondering who it would be to come to the door. He was met with Itachi. Trying not to look disappointed, he smiled, and waited to be invited in. Itachi told them to come in, and they followed.

Entering the house, both of them were in awe. The house, no, _mansion_ was more like it, was _huge_. As you walked in, there was a large staircase leading up to the second story, all made of very nice wood. Looking around, they saw many exits to different rooms. It was... like... like a maze in a sense. "Sasuke, come down! You've got two guests!" the man yelled up the staircase. You could then hear a response of, "In a minute! I'm almost ready!" followed by a few smaller noises from the room. Footsteps echoed as the boy headed for the stairs, hopping down each step. The boy was wearing a dark blue button up shirt, buttoned up, with black slacks, and all. _'Wow... he's looking really nice..."_Naruto thought. Sasuke's thoughts were about mutual, _'He looks very nice tonight... wait, what? He looks fine... I guess.'_ However, unlike Naruto, Sasuke was confused. Shaking his head of such thoughts, he headed over to greet him, "Hey!" the boy said, cheerily. "Hi." Naruto responded, a bit quieter. He was terribly glad Iruka and Itachi had begun to talk, not bothering with him, he hoped Sasuke's parents wouldn't ask too many questions.

Sasuke invited Naruto up to his room, saying they could hang out for a while before dinner was ready. Naruto followed, taking his shoes off, and jumping up the stairs after Sasuke. Heading down the large corridors, the two came upon a large room. "This," he said, "is my room." The boy opened the door as he spoke, and motioned for Naruto to follow. Naruto was in awe, yet again. His room... was _huge_... and absolutely _spotless_. Naruto wasn't sure how the boy was able to keep it clean like this. Not wanting to make it awkward by just looking around, Naruto looked around for the bed. A large, fluffy, queen bed was in the middle of his room. Looking back from the bed to Sasuke, Naruto smiled mischievously. He began to run, and flopped down on the bed, messing up the arrangement of it. Sasuke just stood there, watching. "Naruto!" he yelled, and ran after him, jumping onto both him, and the bed.

Rolling around, and almost play fighting, the two were having fun. Being so close was nice. Sasuke was beginning to remember why he had wanted to be friends with Naruto.

_ It was the first day of school, and Sasuke was walking about, before his class started. He headed over to his locker to get his things, then left. He went on to his art class, to see a boy, sitting __alone in the back corner of the classroom. He had seen him before, but didn't feel he could approach him. He was too nervous last year. This year, though, he _would_ do it. The boy seemed to be nice, he didn't know his name, and he'd seen him in a couple of bad situations, but he had always been very quiet, and kept to himself. Day by day, he would tell himself that he would say hello, or greet him in someway, befriend him, but it didn't happen. He so desperately wanted to do so, but He never did, at least, not until he saw the other in trouble. It was a while into the school year, and for some reason, the boy was taking all of his stuff home. He was about to offer a hand, as he looked to be struggling, but he was too late, as the boy was stripped by another. His things were all splayed across the ground, and his glasses were out of reach. This was his chance to meet him. Sasuke picked up his glasses, and handed them to the boy. He them proceeded to pick up some of his stuff, holding onto some of it, and giving the other stuff back to him to carry. A short while ago, Sasuke had noticed that they rode the same bus, as Sasuke didn't ride it too often, it wasn't as easy to see who all rode. He went onto the bus with him, and the two began to talk, from that point, Sasuke knew he'd made a new friend._

Looking down on Naruto, he got a good look at him. From this angle, Sasuke thought he was quite attractive, hair all tousled, and clothes slightly askew. He blushed red. What was he thinking, he couldn't find another man attractive. What would his family think? He was supposed to hold up the Uchiha name. Not only that, but Naruto was obviously not that way. He would never accept Sasuke like that. Getting off of him, Sasuke lied down, and tried to start a conversation. "So." he said, trying to get into something. Naruto looked over at the other boy out of the corner of his eyes, he couldn't help but let his eyes linger. But, knowing he could never be allowed such happiness by the other boy, he looked towards the ceiling. Before a conversation could be started, the two were interrupted by Sasuke's mother's voice calling up the stairs, "Dinner's ready!" Slightly startled, the two jolted up, and got out of the bed, heading down stairs.

Sasuke opened the door, and had Naruto follow, he lead the way down the corridors, stairs, and a short hallway towards the dining room. Sasuke sat near the end of the table, which sat four to six people, there were just enough chairs for them. Naruto followed, and sat next to him. Iruka sat at another end of the table, and Itachi sat next to him on the other side. Mr. and Mrs. Uchiha brought in the pasta dinner, it had spaghetti, garlic bread, and salad. The two then sat down. The table was silent. Seeing that no one else would be talking, Mikoto tried to start something, "So. How did you two meet, exactly?" This started a nice conversation between everyone, "Well, you see, I sort of fell, and Sasuke helped me get back up, with all my stuff. It turns out, we rode the same bus, so we rode home together." Naruto stated. "Might I ask, what is your name? You look quite familiar!" she laughed, "I have a hard time keeping track of all the faces." He responded clearly, "Naruto Uzumaki." After hearing this, however, the woman gasped lightly. "You're Kushina's son?" surprise was evident in her voice. "Yes..." he said quietly. He never really liked to talk of his parents unless need be. "We were _best_ friends from elementary school 'til a short while ago! She had to move away, and I tried to keep in touch, but I guess she didn't get my calls or letters. And then who would you be, I remember her being married to Minato, did something happen?" she spoke. Naruto was clearly nervous with that question, he began to reply slowly, "Well, Iruka is my adopted father. An incident occurred when I was younger, and... I lost both of them." he looked down at this. At this, Mikoto gasped, louder this time, her friend was dead, and she didn't even know of it until now.

Seeing this as an opportunity to change the subject, Sasuke stepped in, "So would you like to hang out next weekend?" This sparked a much happier subject, and got them off to a better start for a great meal.

Hope you like the story! Please review! :D


	8. Chapter 8

Hey! Hope you like the story, and please review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/ Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

The boys continued to talk during dinner, and conversation and eating began to die down. Eventually, everyone was full, and ready to buss their plates. Sasuke and Naruto returned to Sasuke's room. The older people of the group stayed down and talked for a while as the others stayed down and talked. Iruka thought of this as the perfect time to talk to Sasuke's parents. "I've seen that these two have become fast friends. I don't know if Sasuke has told you of anything, or if he even knows what I'm about to tell you, but as his parents, I think you should know this in case Naruto stays with you. He certainly has had a difficult life. Losing his parents when he was young, he grew up bouncing from orphanage to orphanage, guardian to guardian. One of them was particularly bad, abusing him, and leaving him with scars on his face, reason for him to hide them with his longer hair and the bandages he wears. I saw him sink lower when he came to this school. I believe that he has been bullied, and became depressed. I was going to talk to him about it, but he met Sasuke. I," he paused, taking a breath, and trying to find the best wording, "am terribly thankful for your son. I don't know what Naruto was thinking of, or planing, but whatever that was went away right after he met Sasuke. Slowly, I've seen Naruto talk to me about other friends he's met over dinner, all because of Sasuke." he stopped there, feeling that was good enough of an explanation. Sasuke's family was shocked, they knew he was a good student and all, but were entirely shocked by the happening.

Up in the bedroom, however, something else was happening. The two were getting to know each other, asking many little questions. But eventually, Sasuke got tired of them, and thought it may be a good time to ask something bigger. "Naruto..." Sasuke began, but swatted it off, trying to think of a less intrusive question, "... do we... have any homework... tonight?" he failed to find a good question to fit his serious tone when he began to speak. Naruto looked at him oddly, but brushed it off, and replied, "I don't think we've got any other than the art project." Sasuke nodded, and tried to think of a better topic to talk about. Meanwhile, Naruto was pondering what Sasuke had meant to ask him, thoughts bouncing through his mind, one of the hundreds came to a halt, and he read over it, _'Was he going to ask about your sexuality? Or maybe even if you liked him, or would go out with him?'_ Naruto shook his head free of those thoughts once again. He would go at his own pace, still not knowing when the right time would be. Sitting in silence, time began to pass, and Iruka called up the stairs for Naruto to leave. He answered, and said bye to Sasuke, and thanked his parents. On his way home, the two talked of the food, and Iruka talked of how nice Sasuke's parents were.

Arriving home, Naruto went up the stairs, and collapsed onto his bed, he was exhausted. He would definitely not be getting up early tomorrow.

When Naruto did wake, it was noon. He wanted to start working on his art project, so he went over to his desk to get some clay. Pulling out the picture from his backpack, Naruto began to lay down the clay, smoothing out a bit for the grass, and using a sculpting tool to cut out some of the clay, and make a nice lawn. He then flattened down an area for the sidewalk, adding many cracks to it. He sectioned off a peace of the grass area for a tree, much like the one at his old school, the orphanage also had a large tree with a swing. Before he knew it, two hours had passed, and Naruto was feeling hungry. He went down the stairs, and was greeted by Iruka, sitting down and reading the paper, "I wondered when you'd be up." he said. Naruto smiled, and yawned, heading for the kitchen to get something to eat.

At this very moment, something very different was going on at the Uchiha household. Sasuke was having a dilemma. A very odd one for him, one about Naruto. After having the boy over the night before, Sasuke was having loads of trouble sleeping, thinking all of what had happened the day before. Sasuke was lumbering around the house, looking for some breakfast. Having Naruto over at his house the day before had made him think of a lot of things. He hadn't wanted to accept it, feeling that it was a lack of sleep, a trick of his mind, or even just a friendly liking, but he had come to terms with it from his sleepless night. No matter what he tried, he couldn't keep Naruto out of his head, he tried, and tried, and all it resulted in was a lack of sleep. So he gave in. He believed that he had a crush on Naruto Uzumaki. Denying it would just leave him in a zombie-like state. He sat down at the table alongside his brother. Pouring out his milk and cereal, Sasuke ate in silence. Looking over at his younger brother, Itachi was puzzled, he hadn't seen Sasuke this tired in quite a while. He certainly had a theory, Itachi recalled what he had been like struggling over who he had liked, not being able to sleep until he had come to terms with it.

He felt like testing the younger boy, so he began to speak, "So, Sasuke," he started, "did you and your friend have fun last night?" he asked lightly, trying to make it as if he was suspicious of something, but not too much. Sasuke perked up a bit, and had a barely noticeable tinge to his cheek, "...Yeah. We didn't really _do_ too much," he said in a more hushed tone, "We just sat around and talked for a bit." He tried to change the subject a bit, trying not to make it obvious, "I felt a bit bad, though, I almost brought up a bad event in a question." he began to trail off. Itachi realized what had almost happened, it certainly could've been what Iruka was talking about before, he was glad Sasuke hadn't asked of it yet, maybe a little later, after Naruto trusted him more, or brought it up himself. "Sasuke, I'm not going to say that you have to do this, but I would suggest that you wait until you've known him a little longer, or he brings whatever you were going to ask up himself. You wouldn't want to seem intrusive, right?" He watched as Sasuke took it in, his expression changing. Sasuke thanked him, and went upstairs to change.

Naruto had just finished lunch, and thought about his project. They were going to give everyone time to work on it that next week, but Naruto knew that in total, he would only have 5 to 7 hours to work on it: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, they had Friday off, and then they would work again on Monday, Tuesday, and it would be due at the end of class of Wednesday. Naruto hated being rushed, so he worked on it at home, and took his sweet, sweet time.

The next day, Naruto slept in for quite a while. He had spent much of his time up, sitting in bed and thinking. He knew something was up with Sasuke from what he had done that night. He was going to ask him something, and the more Naruto thought about it, there was a lot he hadn't told Sasuke about. His bandages, the orphanage, his trouble at school, his terrible _guardians_... and most of all, what he had almost done before he'd met Sasuke.

Hope you liked the story! Please review! :D


	9. Chapter 9

Hi everyone! Thanks for the reviews! Hope you like the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

P.S. The time I edited this, I accidentally put in two chapter eights instead of nine XD Sorry about that, guys!

Warning: Yaoi/ Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

As Naruto thought and thought, day turned to night, and Naruto did his homework, and went to bed, not bothering with dinner. Horrible dreams plagued him once more, but this time, it was worse.

_Naruto had planned with Sasuke to have him over after school, as Naruto had gotten up the guts to talk about his past. He was going to explain to Sasuke what happened in his childhood when he got home. Opening the door, he allowed Sasuke in first, and headed up to his room. He looked over to Sasuke, and told him everything, about his parents, the orphanage, and his guardians. Getting emotional, he scooted over to Sasuke, seeking comfort in him, but he was rudely pushed away, and Sasuke got up. "You mean that's what happened? Is there something wrong with you? Is that why they treated you that way?" Sasuke asked harshly, beginning to walk away, Naruto grabbed him, but when he turned around, he was faced with a hideous sight. Sasuke's face and body had been marred, as his parents' were. He screamed, and leaped back, landing on his bed. Tears began streaming down his face, _'No,' _he thought_, 'this can't be happening!'

Again, Naruto woke up unpleasantly. Looking over at his clock, he saw that it was only three in the morning. _'Maybe I shouldn't have gone to sleep so early...'_ he thought. He stood, knowing he sleep would evade him no matter how much he wanted to get some rest. He figured he would at least get an early start on his day. He hopped into the shower, and took his time, letting the heat warm his body. Images from his dream greeted him when he tried to think. Sasuke. No matter what he would think about, Sasuke always returned to his mind. Cleaning himself, Naruto got out of the shower, and had a thought, why not get a bit ahead in math? He pulled out his book, and looked ahead, doing some of the problems that he knew of. He looked at the clock once again, it was 5:30 a.m. The boy thought he'd head downstairs, watch some television, and eat before he had to leave for school. He would have to leave be about 6:30, as his bus got to the stop at about 6:40. He sat down on the couch, and watched the news. It was starting to get fairly cold, so Naruto was going to have to bring his coat today. He got up and the clock read 5:50. He sat down and had some cereal, and saw Iruka come in. He sat down and had breakfast too, leaving at 6. Naruto headed up got dressed, and was out the door on time, grabbing his art sculpture from his room on the way out.

He walked down the street, taking his time. He was tired. _So tired._ But he perked up a bit when he saw Sasuke, standing and waiting for the bus also. He didn't see him very often in the morning, as his parents drove him to school. Thinking of this, Naruto got a bit sad, he hadn't gotten to know the pleasure of having parents for very long, and when he had them, he hadn't been the best, taking advantage of them, and snapping at them. He shook his head of the thoughts, and looked over to Sasuke, waving. "Morning," he greeted, not wanting to go to school, "god, I'm tired." Incidentally, Sasuke hadn't slept too well, either. He hadn't had nightmares, but after accepting the fact that he liked Naruto, he thought long and hard on how he was going to tell Naruto, or if he ever _would _tell him. Sasuke nodded, "Me too." The bus arrived, and the two got on, not as talkative as usual, at least, Naruto wasn't. Naruto had brought out the good in Sasuke, but the boy still didn't talk very much, usually just responding to the things Naruto would say.

Sometimes, having gym first hour sucked. Naruto got to the locker room a little late, and didn't have enough time to get out of the way to change. Shikamaru was walking by, and saw this. Sasuke had talked to him about how oddly Naruto often acted, including how he wouldn't change in front of anyone. Naruto was facing the opposite direction, and was shirtless, revealing his marred back. Oddly enough, this wasn't entirely surprising to Shikamaru, the thing that really surprised him, though, was what happened next. Naruto had turned slightly to the side, and was leaning over, and his glasses had caught on his bandages as they fell off, tugging a part of the bandage down. Shikamaru hadn't seen much, but he had seen a bit of the outline on his cheek, two of the whisker marks. That explained it. Shikamaru left the locker room before Naruto could see that anyone had been there. He would have to tell Sasuke about this soon.

Gym had been running around the track, and passed very quickly. Next, was art class. Naruto went to his locker to get his sculpture, and very carefully headed to class. There would be free periods for the whole week, and two other days. Naruto began to work on the swing, and setting up the tree. He went to the front of the class and grabbed some clay that was out for people to get. After adding careful detail after detail, Naruto was finished with the trunk, a few branches, and the swing. Sasuke came over, as class was almost done, and was shocked. This was amazing, the detail was wonderful! "Wow." he said. Naruto looked up and smiled, Sasuke blushed a bit. Looking down, he reminded Naruto that he needed to put it away before he could leave for his next class.

Itachi commented on their dinner together, saying how nice it was to have him over. Class flew by, culinary arts was a breeze, as they worked on making a cake. Study hall went fast, as Naruto read a book. Then, came lunch. He and Sasuke talked, and ate. Language arts, math, and social studies were easy as always, working on small projects, and quite a bit of homework. In language arts, they worked on their writing project, in math, they worked on the homework they were given, and in social studies, they wrote a large amount of notes.

He got on the bus, talked with Sasuke, and headed home, only to repeat the process once more. On Wednesday, something odd happened, he found. Sasuke had been acting a bit odd, touchy, almost. But instead of over reacting towards Naruto, it was almost as if he was worried Naruto was going to over react to everything. What had happened? He went about his normal routine, figuring that he could probably fix whatever had happened with him when he was over at Sasuke's house.

Sasuke was scared. For Naruto, that is. It couldn't have been Iruka, right? He seemed so nice, and from what Shikamaru was saying, they were old, so it couldn't be him, right? Right? Who could've done something like that, and... and with those scars on Naruto's face.

Thoughts were overwhelming Sasuke's mind. He couldn't think right, he couldn't _stop_ thinking about what Shikamaru had told him. He didn't want to believe it. Losing his parents was enough to put down anyone, really, but all those _wounds_... the boy didn't want to think about it anymore. Distracting his mind with work, he continued onward.

Naruto woke up the next day, but was very excited, in two days, he would get to see Sasuke outside of school again!


	10. Chapter 10

Hey everyone! Thanks for any reviews and I hope you like the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/ Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

Naruto got up for school again, ate, and went about his normal business. In gym, they were doing track again, and the two talked about what they would do when Naruto came over. "What should we do?" Naruto asked. "Well..." again, Sasuke took longer than usual to respond, "I think we could just hang out for a while. Maybe take a walk, play some video games?" That sounded good to Naruto, so he nodded his head in gleeful agreement. In art, they worked on their projects, but because everyone was working, Naruto didn't have time to talk to Sasuke. In cooking class, Naruto finished his cake, and was able to take it home, that is, if he came for it after school, then brought it home. In study hall, Naruto drew for a while, then went to lunch. Grabbing his lunch out of his locker, Naruto was happy for it to be time to eat, finally. However, his suspicions were correct yet again. Sasuke was acting weird yet again. He tried to talk to Shikamaru, asking him if he knew what was up, but the time when Sasuke would leave for a plastic fork, and when he got back wasn't enough to get an answer.

No matter how much he tried, Naruto couldn't find time to ask Shikamaru. Oh well, he would just have to wait until Friday night. Naruto hurried along to class after finishing his lunch. In Language Arts, they were presenting their papers. Luckily for Naruto, he would get to wait until Monday to present his, class was almost over, and he hadn't been called on yet. Jiraiya was about to call his name when the bell rang, he told Naruto that he would be first on Monday. At least he didn't have to go today, he thought. He then went on to math, worked on homework, and lucky for him, got it all done in that hour. Then, to social studies, for more notes.

School was out, and Naruto headed onto his bus. Sasuke joined soon after, and Naruto tried to strike up a conversation, but with how Sasuke was acting, it was harder then ever. So, for once in his life, Naruto gave up. The two boys walked home, and split after Naruto's house. Heading into the kitchen, Naruto started making dinner, he felt like treating Iruka tonight. And he did. He found some left over chicken in the fridge, and stirred it up with some spices, peppers, onions, scallions, and a bit of soy sauce. By the time Iruka got home, the house was filled with a wonderful aroma.

Greeting Naruto, he was glad to be home. "Wonderful thing to come home to!" he said, cheerily. Naruto smiled, and sat down. Iruka joined him, and they ate a pleasant meal. But in the middle, Iruka asked about Sasuke. With that, Naruto grew a bit uncomfortable. Iruka took the hint, and asked what was wrong. "Did something happen, Naruto?" The boy took in the question, and answered, "Well... you see... he's been acting kind of weird. I don't know what happened." Iruka nodded, "Do you think he heard something? How has he been acting?" Naruto replied, "Well, he's been acting super careful, as if he walking on eggshells around me, or something. Like I'm going to overreact to whatever happens. It's making me really worried, what if he heard something bad about me, like, a rumor, or-" Naruto began to ramble. Iruka stopped him, however, seeing as he was overreacting quite a bit. Listen, Naruto. I'm sure everything's going to be fine. "Sasuke probably heard something little, and is just being extra cautious, because he doesn't want anything to happen with you. All things considered, he's probably just worried about you." Naruto nodded, tried to find something to look forward to. At least they would be able to talk the next day. Naruto would be coming over before dinner, and leaving in the early afternoon.

Naruto headed up to his room, and sat on his bed. He began to contemplate things yet again, what was going to happen with him? Had he figured out that he liked him, and was just too worried that he would make a move? Why did everything always have to be ruined? He began to drift of to sleep another sleepless night.

Sunlight filtered through Naruto's windows. He yawned, and turned over, going back to sleep. He woke up once more an hour or so later. The boy yawned once again, and looked over to the clock. It read "2:15 p.m." After letting that sink in, Naruto began to freak out. He shouted, "**What the hell**!" and got out of bed. He was supposed to meet up with Sasuke at 4 pm today! Naruto ran out of his room, and grabbed his towels. Turning on the shower, he quickly cleaned himself. He then dried his hair, which took a while, as his hair was thick. He then hurried back to his room and sorted through what he was going to wear. He got out his bag, and packed it full with his pajamas, a pair of pants, and shorts, and a shirt. Grabbing some underwear, and socks also, he closed his bag. It was about three o'clock by the time Naruto was done. Iruka told him that they would go grocery shopping, which they really needed to do, so he jumped down the steps. He quickly made some toast, and put a bit of ham on it. There's breakfast and lunch.

Iruka called for him from the living room. "You ready to go?" he asked, Naruto answered yes, and headed in. They then continued to shop, and gathered enough food for the rest of the week. By the time they were back, it was around 3:30. Naruto headed into the kitchen to put the stuff away. He went over to Iruka to tell him that they should get going soon. He agreed, but took his time, knowing it wouldn't take too long to get to Sasuke's place. He headed up the stairs, and grabbed his bag. Him and Iruka headed to the car, and left for Sasuke's house. They were a couple minutes early, but that probably wouldn't be a problem. Naruto was about to get out of the car, but he grabbed onto his wrist, not letting him leave just yet. "Naruto, I just want to let you know that if you need any help, if you have nightmares, or anything at all, just call me. I'll be at home tonight and tomorrow. Just remember that I'm only a phone call away, okay?" he finished, reassuringly. Naruto nodded, "Thanks, Iruka. I'll remember that." he smiled, and got out of the car, waving to Iruka. He, however, waited until Naruto was inside to leave.

Naruto headed up to the door, and knocked. It was answered by Itachi, who then called up to Sasuke. He then came, down, invited Naruto in, and waved to Iruka, he waved back, and drove off. Naruto followed Sasuke up to his room. Setting his stuff down, he flopped down on the bed yet again. "Mmm... comfy." Sasuke laughed, and the two began to talk.

Thanks for reading! Hope you liked the chapter, and please, please, please review!


	11. Chapter 11

Hi! Hope you liked the last chapter, and like this one! I've been waiting to write this part for a while XD

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/ Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

The two settled down, and began to talk. "So," Naruto began, "what have you been working on in Language Arts?" he knew they had to write a story about how they overcame something difficult in life, but he wanted to hear about Sasuke's. However, once again, Sasuke acted a bit oddly. He took a while to respond, and did it carefully, picking and choosing his words. "Well... I did it on how I... found a good friend in my school." he finished awkwardly. Naruto looked disappointed. Staring over at Sasuke, almost glaring. He quickly looked away, not wanting Sasuke to get even more sensitive around him. _'God, what is his problem?'_ the blond thought. Sasuke's mom called up the stairs, it was time for dinner. Naruto looked over to Sasuke, and spoke, "We need to talk after dinner, I need to ask you something." he said seriously. Sasuke nodded, looking a bit worried, having no clue what the boy was going to ask.

Heading down the stairs, Sasuke stared at the other boys back as he walked off. _'What does he want to ask me?' _his thoughts began to wander in a few ways, his eyes began to drift down, looking at his backside, but was interrupted as Naruto had looked back at him. Naruto's eyes were wide with shock. _'Was he looking at my ass?'_ Sasuke immediately looked away, pretending nothing had happen. Naruto continued walking, and Sasuke followed. The two sat down at the table, and were served met with a splendid aroma of fettuccine alfredo and garlic bread. Naruto looked over awkwardly to Sasuke, luckily, the other boy was serving himself some noodles, and sauce, as everyone had been seated at the table. He looked away, as the raven was about to hand over the food to him. Naruto served himself a healthy amount of food, and grabbed a piece of bread. He then passed it over to Itachi, and it continued to circulate around the table until everyone had food.

The five began to eat, all of then complimenting Mikoto's food choice, and cooking. Naruto continued to eat, politely, but quite a bit. He was the last one to finish, but after he was done, he thanked Mrs. Uchiha for the wonderful dinner, bussed his plate, and headed up to Sasuke's room. Sasuke sat on the bed, and the blond boy followed. "So," Sasuke began, "what did you want to talk about?" Naruto looked over at him, and took a deep breath.. "Okay, so this might silly of me to ask, but you've been acting kind of weirdly around me lately. I don't know if you heard a rumor or something, but I don't like how you're treating me." he finished in a hurry, hoping he hadn't made it worse than he had to. Sasuke took this in, he had tried to be nicer to him, knowing what had happened to him in his childhood. "Well... Shikamaru said that he'd saw something in the locker room, and it worried me. I was just trying to be more sensitive so that you wouldn't be hurt by something I said." the raven ended. Naruto's eyes widened in shock. He was so joyful that he hadn't heard a rumor, but what had Shikamaru seen, he wondered. "What did you see?" he questioned. Sasuke began to speak, slightly quieter, hoping that Shikamaru had been wrong about what he'd seen. "He... he said that he had walked into the locker room, he'd had been a bit late that day. And that he... had seen you while you were changing. Shirtless, and a part of your bandages had come off." the boy looked down. At that point, Naruto just sat there, in complete shock.

He looked over to Sasuke and spoke, "I guess that I owe you an explanation." he started, he began to reach up to his face, and rub off the make-up, he then removed his shirt, he then removed his glasses. He swatted away his hair from his face, letting Sasuke view it. Sasuke blushed. He knew that Naruto's body was attractive, and he was pretty sure about his face, but with the glasses and hair covering most of it, he couldn't tell, but now, now he was sure. Sun kissed skin, bright blue eyes, and light blond hair, all combined with the whisker marks he had, Sasuke was sure of it now. He definitely liked Naruto. However, with Sasuke staring at him, face slightly red, Naruto was getting uncomfortable. Sasuke came to his senses, and saw this. "Sorry for staring, I couldn't help but get a chance to have a good look at you." he laughed. Naruto blushed a bit, looking down in embarrassment. Naruto then went into how he'd gotten his marks. It had all started one day when he arrived home, and things escalated with his foster parent. After explaining that, he went into some of what happened to his front and back. He turned around a couple times, letting him get a good look. A few old scars were on his back.

The boy leaned over to give Naruto a hug, he had been scared for nothing. Something like this wasn't that bad, it didn't make him awful to look at. Unfortunately, that was the moment that Itachi had decided to knock on the door, he soon came in, only to find his brother, and Naruto hugging, with Naruto shirtless. Naruto quickly tried to cover himself, and his face. Itachi tried to look away quick enough, knowing how he didn't want anyone to see his scars, or at least, that was what Iruka had said. Sasuke had pushed Itachi out of the room, yelling at him the whole way.

"Why can't you wait longer before just barging in?" he yelled at the older boy. Itachi sighed, "I didn't think you guys would be having a moment _already_." he teased. Turning beet red, he denied the others claims, and headed back into the room, slamming the door in his brothers face.

Naruto looked up to Sasuke, and began to smile. The smile continued to grow, until Naruto giggled. Sasuke sat there in silence, but soon, it became too much, and he, too, began to laugh. Laughing harder and harder, Sasuke calmed down a bit, and asked Naruto why he had laughed in the first place. "Well, your brother just walked in on me, shirtless, without my glasses, or anything. It's pretty embarrassing for him to have seen me uncovered, but I doubt he'll make fun of me like anyone else would..." he trailed off, "And on top of that, he saw us _hugging_ while I was like that, so..." Sasuke looked a bit shocked, glad that Naruto hadn't been bugged too much by the fact that Itachi had seen him, what was really embarrassing for him, though was that Itachi thought they were having a moment. Sasuke began to blush a bit, an odd sight usually, but apparently, Naruto brought out his emotions. Naruto saw this, and questioned him. "Why're you red, Sasuke?" This almost made Sasuke redder, as he responded, "I-Itachi thought... we-we were... having a... _moment._" At that point, Naruto joined in, turning red.

_'I can't tell if that bothered him because he likes me, or it bothered him because he doesn't...'_ Naruto thought. He wasn't going to ask now, as he didn't want things to go too fast. They were best friends, but he would hate to ruin it so quickly.

As the night progressed, Sasuke brought out his gaming system, and the two raced each other around in a car racing game. Much of the time, Sasuke won, however, Naruto won a few rounds. After the game was done, Naruto's stomach growled. "Again?" Sasuke asked jokingly. Naruto laughed it off, but felt a bit bad, "Sorry I've got such a bit appetite," he frowned, "bouncing from home to home wasn't the best for how much I could eat, sometimes there was food to spare, but in other cases, when there was food, you'd take as much as you could get." he began to smile, "Not only that, but this sexy beast," he boasted, "has got a high metabolism, so I can eat tons, and still retain my stunning good looks!" he joked, pretending to flip his hair back. This was just too much for Sasuke, the boy began laughing and laughing, and Naruto joined it, but the two were interrupted when Sasuke's father banged on the wall, telling them to go to bed. The two looked over to the clock, it read "10:30 pm". Still giggling, the two got dressed for bed, and brushed their teeth.

Hope you liked the story! Please review!

**Also, a reminder:**

For when this story is done, reviews are still appreciated, just wanted to let you know.


	12. Chapter 12

Wow~! Great feedback for chapter 10! Thanks for all the reviews, guys! :D

Hope you enjoy the chapter! I know it's what a lot of you have been waiting for!

Please review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/ Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

As the boys were finished getting ready for bed, the two set up their sleeping arrangements. Naruto said that he could sleep on the floor, as he was afraid of what could happen if they slept together. Sasuke brought out a couple bed mats and a few fluffy blankets. Grabbing a couple pillows off of his bed, he set up Naruto's bed. The boy began to lay in the fluff of his friend's bed sheets. Sasuke turned off the lights, and proceeded to his bed. Naruto looked over to Sasuke, but didn't know what to say. He turned back, and attempted to sleep. Unfortunately for him, this would be another night lacking sleep.

A few hours into the night, Sasuke awoke to a noise of the floor creaking. He calmly looked to his left, then his right. Naruto was moving in his sleep, a few streaks were down the boy's face. Tossing and turning from side to side, the boy was mumbling barely understandable words. "No... I can't save them... no. No, not you too. I didn't do it, I didn't do it!" the boy was obviously having a nightmare. Sasuke slowly got up from his bed and stepped down to Naruto's. He put his hands on the other boy's shoulders, and gave them a light shake. Naruto's dream apparently calmed down, and the boy slowly began to wake. The boy then sat up, wiping the tears from his eyes, he looked away from Sasuke, embarrassed that this had happened. Sasuke tried to comfort him, awkwardly reaching around him and bringing the other boy closer. Sasuke began to lay down in the others bed. Naruto followed. Soon, the two were asleep, Sasuke had only meant to get him to sleep, then leave, but oh well, at least they would sleep well.

Morning came fairly quickly for the two, they were sprawled out _everywhere_. Naruto was laying open, with his arms to the left and right, and his legs spread apart. Sasuke, on the other hand, had his leg spread on top of Naruto's left leg, the boy's face was also underneath of Naruto's hand. Sasuke's arms were spread out above his head, now you can imagine that this would not be the most comfortable position to wake up in. Slowly, Naruto came to. His eyes began to flutter open, as sunlight filtered through the blinds. He squinted, as his eyes began to focus, looking to his left. He looked to the left, but nothing registered for a while in his mind. Staring at Sasuke, he tried not to move, hoping he wouldn't wake him. However, Sasuke was bound to wake up soon.

After only a few minutes of gazing at him, Naruto saw movement on the others face. His eyes began to open, but Naruto couldn't stop staring, that is, until Sasuke jolted out of their position. "WHAT THE HELL?" he shouted. Apparently waking up tangled with the boy he had a crush on was not what he'd expected to wake to this morning.

This startled Naruto quite a bit, blushing a bit, he apologized for their position. Sasuke then said sorry, "Sorry! I was just a bit shocked to wake up all tangled. I'd forgotten that I fell asleep down here." Naruto laughed at that, and said it was fine. Sasuke looked over at the clock, 8 a.m., it read. The two began to get up, and get dressed. Naruto grabbed his bag, and started getting dressed, putting on his glasses, concealer, and clothes. Sasuke got dressed also, then the two headed downstairs to get some breakfast.

Sasuke went rummaging through the cabinets, looking for something to make. Naruto had an idea, "Could we make pancakes?" he'd always liked sweets. Sasuke nodded, and got the things they would need out. He started making sausage, and Naruto grabbed a fork, and started blending the batter. "Why are you using a fork? We've got a real blender for that!" Sasuke laughed. Naruto pouted, and continued using his fork. The two then started heating the meal, and finished.

Sitting down at the table, Naruto asked for syrup, Sasuke gave it over to him, he, however, ate them without any. This confused Naruto. "Don't you want any?" the boy questioned. "Nope. I don't really like sweets." the other responded. "Oh." Naruto replied. Both continued to eat, enjoying their breakfast thoroughly. After the two were finished, they headed back upstairs, and Sasuke grabbed out his gamecube. The two played a mario game for a while, Naruto winning some, Sasuke winning the others. After a few hours of that, Sasuke's mom called down that she would be going shopping. The boys said okay, and agreed to be careful.

This was the moment that Naruto took to make a joke. "Now that we're home alone... we can do _anything._" the boy paused, "We can even say naughty words..." at that point, Sasuke began to laugh, but Naruto wasn't done, he began to whisper, "... Wiener..." This was it, Sasuke couldn't take it any more, as he burst into raucous laughter, the two laughed together, and decided to head down stairs. They sat on the couch, trying to think of things to do. Turning on the tv, they thought, and thought.

After about twenty minutes, the two had an idea. They could go swimming. Sasuke had a nice heated pool in his back yard, so even on a slightly cold spring day as this, they could still go. Heading upstairs, Sasuke grabbed a couple pairs of swimming trunks. Throwing one to Naruto, he looked at him seriously, "Strip." he said, not backing down from the joke, he continued to stare at Naruto intently. After a few minutes, however, he began to laugh.

Done laughing, the two changed into the shorts, and grabbed a couple towels. Heading outside Sasuke got the pool ready, then stepped back when Naruto shouted, "On your marks. Ready. Get set. GO!" The two sprinted and jumped into the pool, shivering slightly when the cool air hit their warm bodies. Naruto then got out, and headed towards the diving pool, shouting, "Cannonball!" he leaped off the board, and made a large splash. Sasuke laughed, and swam towards him, splashing water. The two then began a water fight, splashing everything they could.

Mikoto had just gotten home from the store, and headed towards the living room and kitchen. Calling out for Sasuke, she was surprised when greeted by silence. She walked around to the living room, near the back. Looking out the window, she was happy to see the two having fun out there, all she could hope was that they didn't catch a cold.

Hope you guys liked the chapter! I just had to include that part with the fork XD  
>Me and my best friend have a joke about how I always used kitchen utensils instead of the proper tool... it turns out good anyway, though!<p>

Please review! =D


	13. Chapter 13

Thanks to all you guys who reviewed! Totally made my week XD

Hope you enjoy the chapter!

Oh and by the way, near the end of this chapter, I was online taking a break from writing, and discovered binaural beats... oh my god they are soooo weird XD

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/ Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

After being in the pool for a while, Sasuke and Naruto were starting to get cold. The two decided t would be best to get out for now, and get dry. "Well that was fun!" Naruto laughed, looking to Sasuke as he got out of the pool. He then grabbed the towel, and looked back to Sasuke, admiring him a but before the two had to go in and get dressed. Both the boys greeted Sasuke's mother, but soon after, Naruto went upstairs to apply his concealer. When he got back, she asked what they would like for lunch, after a good swim like that. They had something in mind.

Taking a small sub type of sandwich, they gathered some had, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayo, putting it all on the sandwich. They then covered it in tin foil, and baked it for a bit. They got a couple drinks, and set up plates. The two boys then sat and ate their lunch. After finishing their meal, the two headed back to Sasuke's room. It was about two o'clock by the time they were all finished, and Naruto was going to leave by 4:30.

Sitting down once again on the bed, Naruto looked over to Sasuke, thinking of what the two could do. Unfortunately, many things came to the teens mind. Blushing a bit, the boy looked away. Sasuke looked over to Naruto, now, wanting to at least talk about something, but the boy couldn't think of anything, so instead of doing that, he turned on the tv. He leaned on the baseboard of his bed, an Naruto joined him. Apparently, the boy was tired from his dream last night, as he began to doze off. He slowly began to fall onto Sasuke's shoulder, snoring softly. The boy reached over, putting his arm around the other, running his hand through his golden hair. Leaning over, he placed a small kiss on Naruto's forehead, "Sweet dreams." he said. Then, he turned the television volume low, he too, beginning to get drowsy.

Itachi had just gotten home from a teacher meeting at the high school, he said hello to his mother, and called for Sasuke, but was not surprised to hear no reply. He snuck up the stairs and opened his brother's door just a crack, to see the two boys sleeping peacefully. He smiled a bit, and shut the door, heading back to his office to grade a few papers. He hadn't been a teacher for very long and still didn't have enough money to live alone without help, not only that, but he'd decided to stay back and be there when Sasuke needed him.

When Naruto came to, it was 4:10, he looked over to see Sasuke smiling in his sleep, and… holding him? Did he see that right? It seemed to him as though Sasuke had grabbed onto him as he slept? He surely wouldn't have done that consciously, right? He stared at the other boy, not wanting to ever have to move. However, he knew he'd have to. He had to leave in 15 minutes, now. Slowly moving out from under Sasuke's arm, he stopped as he heard Sasuke mumble in his sleep, "Naruto…" he said, smiling and hugging the other's arm, burying his face into it. This action made Naruto blush once more, for he found it to be quite adorable. Trying to inch his arm out from under the other. Sadly, for both the boys, Naruto was clumsy enough to completely miss Sasuke's head as he tried to catch it.

Falling onto the bed, his eyes began to flutter for just a bit, then it seemed as though he went back to sleep. Naruto got up to get his stuff together, but stopped dead in his tracks when he heard Sasuke speak. "Sleep well?" he said in an amused tone, Naruto was relieved to see that he wasn't mad. "Yeah," he laughed, "but I've got to get my stuff all packed, I have to leave in a bit. Sasuke looked over to the clock so see that it was indeed about time for the other to leave. Sasuke nodded, and got off his bed, adjusting his clothes. Naruto began getting his stuff together, having it all packed, he went over to Sasuke, and made what he was worried could turn out to be a huge mistake. He hugged him. He, Naruto Uzumaki, hugged his crush. Blushing, he backed away and looked down, "Thanks for having me over." he smiled. Sasuke boldly stepped forward, returned the hug, and said, "Anytime." That made him incredibly happy, to know that Sasuke wanted him over, to have a real friend for once! He was ecstatic! Until, that is, there was a knock on the door.

Both boys were quite a bit sad because Naruto had to leave, but he couldn't just stay there forever. Naruto got his bag with him, and began to head down the stairs with Sasuke following him. Iruka and Fugaku were there at the doorway, one smiling, and another frowning. Iruka thanked the older man for having his son over, as did Naruto. Fugaku continued to frown as the other boy left. Sasuke left and went up to his room, his father heading back to his office.

Iruka began to ask Naruto about his time, "Was it fun?" he questioned, in which Naruto responded, "It was _awesome_! We started off by just hanging about for a while, and talking. Then, we had dinner, played some video games, then went to bed. Then, the next morning we made breakfast, played another game, and went _swimming_!" Iruka looked happy to hear this, smiling, "So how was it with Mr. Grumpy?" he joked, Naruto began to laugh, "It looked as if he was mad at us, or something!" Iruka nodded, "Did you do anything bad?" Naruto responded by shaking his head, "We stayed up a little late, but not very. He banged on the wall since we were laughing a lot." Iruka smiled, that was just like him.

When the two arrived home, Naruto continued to contemplate a dream of his- his dream last night was horrible, but he was thinking more of the one he had late this afternoon. He'd dreamed that Sasuke had kissed him, and the fact that he woke up with the boy hugging hadn't helped him deny his dream being real at all. He knew that Sasuke couldn't like him, it just couldn't be possible. But that little voice in his head couldn't deny that he'd seen Sasuke looking at him. _**'You saw him looking, not only that, but he hugged you before you left, and he was holding onto you as you slept, in the afternoon, **_**and**_** during your little nap.'**_Naruto didn't want to accept it, but it was irritating him, he wanted to know Sasuke liked him, he wanted to know _so badly,_ but he couldn't just _ask_ him, right?

So instead of asking Sasuke, Naruto thought he would ask Iruka. Surely he wouldn't have a problem with it, he was dating Kakashi, so he couldn't have a problem with the fact that Sasuke was another guy. Naruto began heading downstairs to find Iruka, he wanted to ask him a few things about what he should do, and he figured Iruka would be the best person to ask at this point.

Hope you guys liked the chapter! Please review, the more reviews I get the more I'll try to make a longer chapter! :D


	14. Chapter 14

Hello! Thanks to anyone who reviewed, hope you like this chapter! =D

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

Please review! And enjoy!

Naruto scrounged around the house for his foster father, trying to find someone to talk to. Iruka was found sitting in the living room, reading. Naruto headed up to him, and sat down, looking around somewhat nervously. Iruka looks up from his book, and greets the other, "Hello, Naruto!" Naruto smiled at the man, and looked down, fidgeting a bit. Iruka noticed this, and stared at the boy. "Iruka... I need to ask you something..." Iruka sat up from his chair a bit, leaning in closer. He smiled at Naruto, and motioned for him to continue. He slowly began to speak, "I... I-I think I might... like... Sasuke." This had come as a shock to Iruka. He certainly hadn't been expecting this. He thought, maybe Naruto had been asking to have Sasuke over, or for a tattoo, he'd been expecting just about _anything_ other than this! He looked up to his son, smiling, "I honestly didn't expect that- I was thinking maybe you'd be wanting a tattoo, or something like that," the man laughed, "I'll support you in whatever you find to be the right decision." Naruto smiled, he was hoping that this would be easy, he was old enough to decide on his own, he was in his senior year of high school. "The problem is, I don't know what to do about it. So far, he's been my only really good friend, I _really_ don't want to screw this up!" Iruka took this in, he didn't think it would be easy for Naruto, having Sasuke be one of his only friends, and to like him like he did. Iruka thought he might have a plan, though.

Iruka looked back to Naruto, and began to talk, "I think I may have a plan for you, Naruto," he grinned, "from what I can see, Sasuke cares for you very much. You've told me enough about him for me to know that, and you guys talk about a lot of things, right?" Naruto nodded, "Yeah, we talk a lot." Iruka went on, "If you do, then you could bring up something that you think is acceptable, like how you just saw a couple in some place that you thought looked cute together, make something like that up, and have them be a same-sex couple, see how he reacts to it. He doesn't seem like the type to be against it, but who knows? If you start off with that, you can test him to see if he's okay with it or not. And if he is, continue to slip in little things like that. The next step would be to talk to him all you can, not to the point where it's annoying, but try to stay in touch with him. Then, start asking some questions about who he likes, that may end up helping a lot in the end." Naruto was ecstatic, with this, he could determine a lot about Sasuke. This would be a _big_ help to him.

The weekend was over and it was time to go back to school. Naruto went through his normal routine and went on his way to school. He met up with Sasuke and immediately said hello, trying to strike up a conversation with the boy. Sasuke smiled, and the two began to talk of what else they did on the weekend, coming onto the bus, they talked on and on.

Arriving at school, Naruto went to his gym class, did the warm ups, and ran around the track. After running for quite some time, it was time to come in. He then went to his art class, their project would be due on Wednesday, but lucky for him, he was almost completely done. He'd finished all the little details, the grass, swing, and sidewalk, even showing the little cracks throughout it. All he needed to do was finish touching up the orphanage. At this point, the thing was just a large block of clay. He began to add details, giving it windows, doors, and a broken down-looking sign. Halfway through the period, he was all done with that. He went down to the front of the class to grab some paint. The boy started to paint the grass, tree, and swing. He heard a loud bell ring through the room, he grabbed his stuff, and put it away in the storage areas.

Naruto headed back to biology, and took notes again, this period always went fast. After that, he headed down to culinary arts class. They were on to something else, today. They would be making a more complicated dinner type recipe, a more complicated pasta.

Naruto headed back to study hall, with nothing to do once more, so he sat down and read for a while. The bell rang at Naruto headed back to his locker to get his lunch box. He then proceeded to head down the hallway to the cafeteria. Once down there, he headed to his normal seat with Sasuke and their friends. Naruto started to unpack his lunch. Today, he'd packed himself ramen! _'Mmmmm, this is gonna be _so_ good!'_ the boy thought, about to dig into his food, however, he was interrupted as Sasuke sat down beside him. He looked up and smiled, greeting the boy, "Hi!" Sasuke smiled, and replied, "Hello." Naruto then continued down to his food and began slurping up his ramen. Conversations continued on at their table, as people went on eating.

Shikamaru looked over to Naruto, yet again, something quite common was happening- both were staring at each other. At some point when Naruto was looking away, Sasuke would look at him, studying the boy, as would Naruto when Sasuke looked away. _'Troublesome, I'll leave them to it for now, but if they don't realize what's going on soon, then I'll have to step in a bit.'_ the boy thought. Getting back to his food, Shikamaru finished his meal.

Ino and Sakura went on and on about their weekend, jabbering for what seemed like hours to everyone else at the table. Although there conversations stopped as Ino took a chance to look over at Naruto, who was sitting there quietly. It was always hard for her to tell whether he was in a bad mood, or just didn't feel like talking that day. Seeing what was holding her up, Sakura looked over to Naruto, too, staring at him. "So what did _you_ do this weekend, Naruto?" Ino asked, somewhat jokingly. The girl could be nice or mean, but for the most part, in Naruto's experience, she could be quite off-putting. At this point, Naruto was deep in thought, and couldn't hear what anyone was saying. Ino grew impatient and waved her hand in front of Naruto's face, startling the boy. "Wha-?" he looked around to see Ino, Sakura, Sasuke, and Shikamaru staring at him, he blushed and apologized, "Sorry, I was thinking... about some... stuff..." Ino laughed, "Well then, now that you're with us, what did you do last weekend?" Naruto took some time to process the question, choosing his words carefully. "I uh... hung out with a friend." he replied, not wanting to say who, as he knew Ino would get mad once again, as Sasuke was "hers". She chuckled at that, Naruto didn't have any friends other than Sasuke, right? And Sasuke certainly wouldn't hang out with _him_ right? Sasuke agreed with Naruto, nodding his head, "Yeah, we hung out together." he smiled teasingly. Sasuke knew Ino "loved him", but he couldn't care less- he didn't like her, and no matter how much he explained that, she just couldn't understand.

This had shocked Ino, she'd never thought that Sasuke would hang out with _Naruto_! So, she went for it once again, "Well, why don't _we_ hang out sometime?" she said, trying to lure him in. "No, Ino, I don't know how many times I have to tell you! I do _not want to hang out with you_."This came as a bit of a shock to her, why wouldn't he want to? "Why would you want to hang out with him, not me? What are you, gay?" she jeered, this would definitely make him realize who he should really be hanging out with. Sasuke thought about this for a while, he knew he was _not_ straight. Maybe bi, but why not make her freak out for a good laugh? "As a matter of fact, yes I am." With that, Sasuke got up from the table, and left. Most at the table were shocked, some had expected it, whereas others had no idea. Some were sad and some were indifferent, but one of the group was happy; Naruto.

Thanks for reading!

Hope you liked this chapter, and please please please review! :D


	15. Chapter 15

Hi everyone! Hope you enjoyed the last chapter, and love this one! I've been trying to get into their relationship a bit more, but I'd hate to rush it. ;-;

Oh shoot, I just realized I updated a day early, woops! DX

I guess it's a surprise? :D

I've been really busy lately, and today just totally felt like a friday...

Please review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

Please review! And enjoy!

Naruto then got up and followed Sasuke out of the lunch room, although he didn't know if he would want to talk about this, he figured that he should at least try to.

Walking down the halls, he headed down to the bathroom, as Sasuke had just gone in. He was leaning on the wall, looking at Naruto as he walked in, he smiled. "Hey." he greeted, Naruto smiled in response. "Were you kidding back there?" Naruto asked, pleading that he wasn't. "Actually, not really, I might be bi I guess, but why not freak Ino out even more?" he laughed, "I understand if you don't want to be friends any more." he said sadly, hoping Naruto wouldn't agree. "Yes Sasuke. I don't want to be friends with my _best_ and _only_ friend, all because of your sexuality. Because being bi myself, I just think that such a thing is terrible and disgusting." he said playfully. Hearing this made Sasuke's heart jump. The person he liked could possibly like him back. He would definitely need some help with this. Time for Shikamaru.

The day flew by for the both of them in a breeze, knowing that it was possible for one another to like each other made then feel light and happy. They couldn't stop thinking about what could happen, and what they could do to make it work. Sasuke went home with Naruto, trying to talk normally, hoping Naruto wouldn't think it meant much to him.

When Sasuke got home, though, he couldn't help but make a big deal out of it. As he went about his normal routine, he did nothing but smile. Usually, to see Sasuke smiling was a rare sight, but it wasn't today.

Itachi had just arrived home, greeting Sasuke on his way into the kitchen to get some food. Sasuke looked up and waved, but went back to his book. Staring over at his brother, Itachi was thoroughly perturbed. His brother, _Sasuke_, was sitting there, smiling. Itachi looked once again over the other- he wasn't even _reading_! What had happened that could make him _this_ smiley, even when he was happy, Sasuke didn't smile much, maybe a bit, but not like this, not this full on _grin_! Taking immediate action to find what was going on, Itachi sat down across from him.

"So, how was school today?" he questioned, sounding generally concerned. Sasuke, still smiling, answered, "Great!" Itachi continued to stare at the boy, "Who are you and what have you done with Sasuke?" he asked, in a monotone voice. He laughed, scaring Itachi even more. "I've just been having a really good day today!" he insisted, however, Itachi continued to prod. "Does it have something to do with Naruto?" he questioned, smiling. He was fine with it if he liked another boy, Sasuke was his brother, and he would support him no matter what. Sasuke looked down a bit, and replied with and immediate "No!" Hearing that made Itachi know. It certainly _did _have something to do with Naruto. Itachi moved one chair over to be a bit closer to Sasuke as he spoke, "Listen, I'll stop prodding for now, but I want you to know that I don't care what you do as long as it's mostly legal, and fairly safe." With that, he stood up, and started to leave, but was stopped by Sasuke holding onto his sleeve. "Wait," he began, "I'll tell you what happened."

So he began to explain from the very beginning of it all. He took a deep breath, "So it all started when he transferred from his previous school. I took notice of him on his first day, noticing his bright hair and blue eyes, along with his sun-kissed skin tone. Over time, I noticed that he didn't really talk to many people, so I wanted to get to know him, purely from the fact that he interested me. I then noticed he was acting a bit differently: I'm pretty sure he was being bullied. So a while after he was acting oddly, I was about to get on my bus, which he actually rides too, and I saw him fall over. One of the guys had tripped him, so I helped him up. He was bringing all his stuff home, oddly enough, and I helped him take it home. Then it started. We began to talk more, and we hung out a few times. But after a bit, I noticed that I couldn't stop thinking about him. He was always on my mind, and after one sleepless night I accepted that I liked him in a different way than I would like a friend. After that, we had this sleepover, and Ino asked what he did over the weekend, and he said he hung out with a friend, not wanting to bring me into it. She likes me, so I wanted to make her jealous and I told her that we hung out. She then said that I should hang out with her, what was I, gay? That made me mad, so to get her off my back I said I was. I got up and left the room, Naruto followed me. I said I would understand if he didn't want to be friends anymore, and he just said about how he couldn't be because he was bi." he took a large breath. Itachi was shocked, yet happy. He was glad for Sasuke to be able to trust him, and certainly, for him to be this happy. "So then are you gay, or were you just pissing her off?" he asked. Sasuke responded, "Well I guess I'm bi, I mean, I've never really cared about gender." Itachi nodded. "And the fact that Naruto is bi makes you happy because it means that he is able to like you back." Sasuke nodded. "I see. Thank you for sharing, little brother. Good luck with him." and with that, Itachi went to his office area.

Sasuke went about his normal routine the next day, until he got to gym class. He needed to talk to Shikamaru about his dilemma. After exiting the locker room, Sasuke went over to the area he could almost always find the boy: the corner. The teachers wanted them to warm up by walking around, but Shikamaru just wanted to relax, so he usually waited around in the corner, where the teachers couldn't really see him. "Hey," he greeted, seeing Sasuke walk over, "what's up?" Sasuke looked down a bit, then slowly up, "I think I might need some help." Shikamaru was shocked, this _never_ happened. The other boy was always too stubborn to ask for any help whatsoever! Sasuke then began to find the floor incredibly interesting, not looking to meet the boy's eyes. "So what exactly would you like help with?" he questioned. Sasuke looked up once more, "Well..." he drew out, "there's a certain person who I've been having on my mind, and I need a little bit of help getting them to notice my," he slowed to a whisper, "_feelings_..." Shikamaru smiled. This was what he'd been waiting for. "So who would this person be?" he smiled, teasingly, wanting to make Sasuke admit it. He sighed, "Naruto." he spoke quietly, after pausing to think whether he wanted Shikamaru's help anymore. Shikamaru smiled, and the two boys headed to their attendance spots. _'Well this is going to be fun.'_ he thought.

Thanks for reading! =D

Please review!


	16. Chapter 16

Hello, everyone! :D  
>Thanks to anyone who reviewed!<br>Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Please review! When I put out chapter 15 I was kind of sad to see I only got 3 review :I

But a few is better than none, so :I

ALTHOUGH, I must say I was quite delighted to see a few favorites and alerts :3

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

Sasuke chose to run on track, as did Shikamaru, and the two came up with a plan. They would get a couple more people in on it, probably Hinata and Chouji, and with their help, the two would get all of the closer to Naruto as friends. As that happened, they would plan get-togethers, and slowly leave the two alone. When they get alone, they can start talking again, and Sasuke may even get the chance to make a move.

He was generally spacey for the rest of the day, not answering questions with any more that a, "Huh?" The boy tried and tried to stay focused, but he couldn't get his mind off the details. What was he going to do? If he made one tiny mistake, that could mean the end of his chances with Naruto. Why did love have to be so complicated?

Naruto was absolutely giddy. In all reality, nothing could ruin his day. Ever since he'd become friends with Sasuke, most of the people had backed off. In his mind, he thought nothing could go wrong now that he had friends, but he was wrong. Ino was _not_ happy with Naruto. Ever since he'd come along, he'd been stealing _their _Sasuke from them. The two hadn't gotten a chance to make any kind of move on him, because he was always so _close_ with Naruto, but not them. Ino hadn't understood at all, she was attractive, so why wouldn't Sasuke like her? She thought Sasuke was attractive, so why didn't he like her? He obviously wasn't gay, she thought, someone that hot just _couldn't_ be gay!

Although friends with Ino, Sakura had come to it with a different approach, she had known Sasuke for quite some time, and never believed that he could possibly gay, but she slowly started to believe it. She wasn't as upset with it, because it wasn't exactly her business, Ino hadn't really learned when to quit, but after hanging out with Sasuke even for only a short while, she had started to not like him as much, he was generally cold and mean, not smiling or laughing no matter how hard she tried. But everything changed when Naruto came to the school. Sasuke seemed extremely interested in him, smiling sometimes after seeing something he would do. Things were changing unbelievably fast, he was almost always smiling, and _laughing_, even. Just about anything the boy did kept him happy. Seeing that made Sakura believe in what the boy had said earlier. She needed to ask him if she could help.

Naruto went on about a normal day once more, happy as he could be, heading to gym, he ran track. He went back to change, and headed to art class. They were getting to show their art pieces today, they were all lined up on table at the front of the class as the students sat down. Deidera began to speak, "Now, class, I know you've all been working very hard on these sculptures. I never specified on what they had to be, really, just something important that happened in your life. Although I certainly do hope all of you chose appropriate topics!" he said, laughing.

He then motioned for everyone to stand, they began to circle around the room. Most of them were amazing, with small details, and precision work. Although there were still a few in the class that were lacking in detail, as each person explained the story you could see that everyone at least had a good story behind each piece. Hinata's was, as she said, about Naruto, and how he'd inspired her. She had sculpted a hallway where she'd first seen him, a couple people were pointing at him, and he was walking along, with a smile on his face, going on as if nothing had happened. She explained how that had changed her, and talked of how she'd recently found out it was Naruto. That was a bit of a shock to some of the class, some had become to find a new respect for the other.

Sasuke's was about Itachi showing him that he needed new friends. He'd sculpted him, with his brother at the top of the hill. He was pointing down to the park at a couple of other kids there, symbolizing how he showed Sasuke that he should make new friends.

Shikamaru did his on how he and Chouji became friends, how his mother had yelled at him to stop being lazy, and go to the park. He had, and that's where he met his now best friend, Chouji. He showed the park that they met at, with the two boys laying in the grass, staring up at the sky.

Then came Naruto's. Many of the people in the class were in awe, this was definitely one of the best art pieces yet. Everything had different tones, and with how Naruto had done the swing, it could move. On top of that, the tree was able to be shade, with its individually made leaves. Then came Naruto's story. He continued to explain how when he was younger, he didn't really have a home. He was in foster care for quite some time, staying with a family for a very short time, for him it was almost as if the decrepit old building had become a home. Although he'd never liked it, he was always alone, even in his "home". With it's old, cracked sidewalks, and its dirty, old windows, it wouldn't seem like a good place to be, but for Naruto, it had been one of the better places.

The group continued on to the last couple art pieces, before sitting down. Everyone got a chance to vote on who's piece they thought should go in the are box in the school's hallway. Naruto was terribly anxious. He'd voted for Sasuke, as he'd love to see the boys smile if he was able to win. After a few silent minutes, Deidera had everyone turn in their papers. Everyone was able to sit where ever they wanted, and talk while he counted the votes, so naturally, the group got together. Hinata, Shikamaru, Naruto, and Sasuke all sat down at a table, and began to talk. "Are you okay, Sasuke?" she asked quietly, referring to the incident with Ino. "Yes, I'm fine, it's like she always knows what gets on my nerves. Even though she likes me, it's almost like she trying to annoy me instead of get to know me!" by the end, he was getting louder. Naruto stepped in a bit, putting a hand on the other's shoulder, "There are just some people out there who don't understand that no matter how much you pester them, it won't change a damn thing! And I know that it sucks, but we've got to deal with it."

The others nodded in recognition. Throughout their lives, everyone had one of those people, they just had to deal with them. Their conversation was interrupted, however, by Deidera's voice, "We have a clear winner and runner-up!" he called out. Everyone's attention was on him, all on the edge's of their seats. "And the winner is..."

Thanks for reading! Hate to leave you hanging, but I kinda had to XD  
>Please review!<p> 


	17. Chapter 17

Hello everyone!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

"The winner is: Naruto!" most of the class clapped, happy to see such a deserving piece win. Sasuke looked over to Naruto, seeing the boy smiling and happily bouncing in his seat. He smiled as the other stood up to take a picture with his piece. Everyone watched the boy as he strode over to the place he had to go. He smiled, and Deidera took the picture. "Now, Naruto, you can actually choose whether to leave the piece, and or just a picture at this school." the man concluded. Naruto nodded, thinking, "Eh, I think I'll leave it here, I don't really have a place to keep it at home." he laughed. Many laughed or grinned at that comment, it was just like him to not keep a wonderful piece of artwork, all because he didn't feel like finding a place to keep it.

Sasuke tried to tag along with Naruto to his next class. They talked, and started to plan something they could do together. Finals were coming around the corner, as it was around late spring. So, of course, they had to plan around their own study time. In a sort of celebration, the group figured that they could hold a party with all of their friends. It would have to be at Sasuke's house, as his was the biggest. Sasuke could probably talk his parents to leave the house, as they usually put quite a bit of trust in him.

The two went along in their third hour class, science, and went on about their business. The two went on their ways after studying for the period. Naruto went on to his culinary arts class, and Sasuke went to his business management course. Naruto continued to cook, and Sasuke continued to work. At the end of the week, their classes would start to study a bit on their content. The two met up in the hallway, and walked together to study hall, speaking about the party once again, "Okay, so I just got an idea, should we all bring our swimsuits and stuff?" Sasuke said, thinking by then, Naruto would probably be fairly comfortable with their friends. "Yeah, I think that could be fun. What food do you think we should make? I'm pretty sure none of us have any food allergies." Sasuke nodded, "Why don't you come over to my house after school, and we can start writing down some ideas?" Naruto agreed.

Itachi had given out a worksheet for homework, so the two finished it up in study hall. Heading down to their lunch class, they talked. When they arrived, it was slightly awkward for Sasuke, with Ino _not_ trying to talk to him for once. Sasuke looked over to Naruto questioningly, he looked over to Ino, then back, and deadpanned, "Perhaps she's plotting." Sasuke smiled.

After finishing their meals, the two headed to their language arts class. "Now that finals are coming up, we'll start going over what we've learned this year, but first we're going to start a very short little writing project. You may get with a partner, and write a short story. It can be about anything you want, and can be up to eight pages long, but no shorter than three. I don't care about what genre you choose, but it has to be at least slightly school appropriate, as you're going to give a short summary in front of the class. You have until next Monday to write it, as Tuesday we will start studying." he concluded. Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other, and nodded. They would meet after school, and plan for the party, _and_ their book. "You may get into pairs and plan your story for the rest of the hour."

The two sat down, and began to talk. "So what genre do you think it should be?" the blond asked. Sasuke thought for a bit, and began to spit out a few, "There's always romance, action, friendship, angst, parody, and comedy. Although there are many more, at this point I think we should focus on the easiest." Naruto nodded, thinking, "We can _always_ write about friends, or how about romance? That should be easy!" Sasuke agreed. So the two began writing down ideas.

By the end of the period, the two had plenty of ideas. Ones of romance, tragedy, and action. The one they thought would be the best, however, was one of a tragedy between to friends. Two boys, both from broken homes came together after bumping into each other on their way to the store. One of them still has a mother, but the boy has to do everything for her, as she has cancer. She can't afford treatment, as she's getting worse. As she gets worse, the two get closer as friends. After a while she loses the battle, but the friend helps him carry on.

After school, the two would go into it a bit more. The bell rang, and the two went to their next class. Math had a couple pages of homework to finish, which Naruto almost completed. Then came social studies. Asuma always started study a bit earlier, so they started taking a pre-test to see what all they remembered. Most people did fairly well, but it was obvious that there was plenty of material that needed to be re-applied.

The day was over, and the pair began to gather their things and head on to the bus. They sat down, and Naruto got out a piece of paper. "So who all should we invite?" he asked, thinking of people who would be best. Sasuke replied, "Definitely these few; Shikamaru, Chouji, Hinata, Neji, Sai, Shino, TenTen, Kiba." Naruto agreed, writing the names down, "But _maybe_ these guys too, I've heard that Lee goes crazy with alcohol, and there_ may_ be a little around, Sakura seems nice, but I don't know about Ino. Either way, I'm pretty sure Ino's going to invite herself." Sasuke nodded. If there was a party with him, she was going to find out, one way or another.

The bus came to a stop, and Naruto put his paper away, getting off of the vehicle. The two then made their way over to Sasuke's house. "I'm home!" he said aloud. Sasuke began to unpack his stuff, as Naruto texted his dad; "We've got to plan some stuff, and work on a project, so I'll be staying with Sasuke for a while after school today."

And so they began to plan, streamers, music, food, drinks, and clean-up crew. They would invite all the people first, and if they could come, then the two would assign everyone a job. As the planning went on, the two were eventually done. By the time Iruka came to Sasuke's house, the two had already gotten a couple pages of their story done, they would need to write two or three more before the plot could be finished, then, they would edit.

With everything so busy, the week began to fly by for Naruto, the days were short, with studying/ work periods for most classes, before he knew it, finals were upon him. And planned only two weeks after finals, it would be the end of school, _and_ time for their party.

Thanks for reading, hope you liked it, and PLEASE review! It means a lot to me, and makes me really want to continue writing this story!

:D


	18. Chapter 18

Hello all! I am so pumped for when this chapter is updated! I've gotten up to 92 reviews as of when I'm writing this, and I simply can't wait 'til I break one-hundred! I've really gotta say thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far, it always makes my day! I'm incredibly lucky to have all of you readers who enjoy this enough to give me feedback ^^

And another thanks to everyone who has added me (or this story) to their favorite/alerts list! I've got lots of other ideas for stories to write, although I'll be taking a couple weeks off from writing after this story is finished. I think that'll be sufficient.

So yeah, please review, alert and or favorite! =D

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/ Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

Both boys presented their book before the class on Monday, not going in too far on the details.

Before either boys knew it, the week was over, and finals were on. They were both prepared, and the days flew by like nothing else. Because they had finals before, they knew all the steps they had to take, and just how easy it would be.

The end of the year, and graduation alike were coming up, and everyone was on edge. They all wanted to know how they did on their tests, and many were preparing for parties.

By Wednesday, Sasuke and Naruto had just about finished the invitations. The people who could come would be; Lee, Neji, Hinata, TenTen, Sakura, Ino, Kiba, Shino, Chouji, and Shikamaru. They included the start and end time. There would be a few people to come earlier, and help out with setting the space up, and the rest would come later with food and drinks.

Sasuke had convinced his parents to leave for the night, so there wouldn't be a problem with doing whatever they wanted. There would be swimming, hanging out, and food- a great party. Not only that, but with the size of his house, Sasuke would have no problem fitting everyone in. Naruto had helped greatly in organizing the invitations, each read;

(Name)

Place: 1204, Fauley Dr.

What: Graduation Party

Time: Tuesday, June 11, 5-12 pm.

For those of you who can come, I wanted to trow a party for all of us here in celebration of our hard work. I've got a pool for us to use, and if everyone responds, we'll be having lots of good food and drinks.

-Sasuke

He thought that would be good enough for everyone to have an idea of what would be going on. A fun party with friends, he thought. But before he clicked print, he went back and added one think at the end, "Also, PLEASE do not invite anyone else. Though my house may be very large, I'd rather just have my friends over." That should do. He printed them out, and wrote down names on each one, folding them afterward. He then proceeded to motion Naruto over, and grabbed a paper and pencil to write down names.

He wrote down each guests name, and got Naruto to help him out with assigning each person something to help out with. First would be the two or three people to help with decoration, these people would most likely stay afterwards to help pick up also, and sleep over. They agreed on Chouji, Shikamaru, and Hinata, she wouldn't be able to sleep over, but she could definitely help start and end the party. Next was food, Chouji, Sakura, Shino, and Neji bring food. They were sure he wouldn't mind being on two, as long as he could work with food. Then the drinks, Ino, Kiba, Lee, and TenTen would bring drinks. Lee didn't do well with alcohol, so the two figured that would discourage him from bringing any. They then wrote down a job for each of them on their invitations.

When Thursday came around, the two split up the invitations, and handed them out at lunch. There were mixed reactions from everyone at the table, most happy to be invited, some ecstatic merely because it was Sasuke's party, and a few were indifferent. Almost everyone replied immediately, knowing they didn't have a plan, though a few said they would still need to see if anything was going on that day.

By the end of the week, everyone had replied. The finals were over, and they all had that day off, they would spend close to the whole day wherever their group went, then they would head to their gym for a recital. Their actual graduation would be at a center outside of the school, but for now, the practiced in the gym. The school was split up into groups, one group went bowling, one stayed at the school outside, and one went to a park. Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Kiba, and Hinata all went to the park.

The five stayed in their group, and mostly hung out, watching clouds, and talking. Shikamaru began to get up, as it was getting on lunch time. "Why don't you two come with me to help carry the stuff back," he said, "I'll need some with all the stuff we've gotta get." Hinata and Chouji didn't understand at first, but with a quick glance back at the two who were left, they understood very well. Naruto tried to get up, wanting to help too, but Sasuke pulled him back, "I think those two will be enough." he said. Naruto gave in, and lied back down. The two watched the clouds, and after thinking about it for a while, Sasuke moved a bit closer towards Naruto, lessening the distance between them. The other felt this, and took it as a sign that he needed space, so Naruto moved away, not thinking. Once again, Sasuke pulled him back, bringing him even closer, this time.

Naruto's heart began racing, could this mean that Sasuke liked him? Or was he just cold? What was going on?

Sasuke had finally done it, he'd made somewhat of a move on the other. What did Naruto think of it, he wondered.

Shikamaru, Hinata, and Chouji had brought back the food, but Shikamaru stopped the other two from advancing. "Look," he said, pointing to the two in the grass, "I'm glad _someone_ finally made a move." he finished. Chouji and Hinata nodded.

After laying in the grass for a while, Naruto began to dose off, as did Sasuke. The two gradually began to curl into one-another as they did last time. Shikamaru took this as a good time to come back, the two probably wouldn't notice they'd returned until they woke up. Watching the two was quite comical, they would occasionally move around, twisting themselves even further into the knot. They tried not to laugh as the two got more and more tangled, but the couldn't help themselves as Naruto mumbled something, and moved his arm from one side to another, slapping Sasuke as it came down. This ended up waking Sasuke, but not Naruto. Struggling to get free of the other, the group continued to laugh, louder and louder. Eventually, Naruto woke up, with Sasuke almost free of the other. Waking up to this was odd, odd enough to make Naruto join in the laughing, Sasuke, too, joined in.

After that little incident, everyone began to eat, Shikamaru had picked up five hotdogs, as those were the only thing the school was providing, along with chips, and drinks.

When they were all done eating, the group went over to an area with lots of trees, and decided to climb. Going up higher, and higher, Naruto got to the top before anyone had even gotten halfway there. Looking around, he noticed the pretty view, and waved to a few people passing by. Many were shocked that he'd climbed so high up, but some were worried. "Naruto, come down a bit, won't you?" Sasuke yelled upwards. Naruto groaned, but complied. On his way down, he slipped a bit, but was surprised to find himself helped back up by none other than Sasuke. He blushed a bit, and thanked the other, continuing to descend.

By the time everyone was down, it was time to go. Everyone groaned, time to practice another graduation.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, or alerted this story! I hope I can get to one-hundred this time!

Please review! ^.^


	19. Chapter 19

Hey everyone! I've been trying to get in the habit of starting another chapter as early as I can, to that if I can't find time to update, I can just post the chapter from last time. I finished the last chapter in ONE day! Can you believe it? XD

I also feel really bad that I haven't fit too much Sasuke and Naruto action so far, so I'm going to try and fit in at least a bit in this chapter :3

Thanks to anyone who reviewed!

Annnnd I simply cannot believe I got all the way up to one hundred reviews already! :'D Thank you everyone! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

As the practice ceremony was about to start, Sasuke and Naruto found out their numbers were only one away from one another's. So, as the preparation started, everyone's numbers were called in groups, until theirs were called, in the last hundred out of roughly 900 students. Naruto was jumping around in excitement, "Aren't you happy to be able to get out of here?" he asked. Sasuke nodded slowly, "Although I may be happy to get out of here, it's the thought of college, and not being able to see all of our group that makes me nervous. Unless we all somehow get into the same college, we won't really be able to see each other." Naruto agreed, "I know that I won't be able to see all of you guys all the time, but that's not much of a problem, I mean, I have most of everyone's phone numbers and I can text anyone if I feel the need to. Also, since I have them, we can plan get togethers and stuff!" he finished in a lighter tone. Sasuke nodded once more, "Yeah, when you put it that way, I guess it can't be too bad."

The ceremony was about to begin, and names were called off. One by one, it dragged on and on. By the time it got down to the U's, it had been at_ least_ an hour. Time was slowly inching by, second by second. Luckily, there weren't too many names starting with U, and any of the letters past it. Their row was called up, and they walked up to the stage, shook a teacher's hand, and walked down the steps back to their seats. Not paying attention, Naruto sat down. Sasuke lifted him back up, though, motioning to the other people still standing. After their row was all there, they all sat back down. Good thing this was all only practice.

After everyone's name was called, everyone sat up, and left row by row, seat by seat. Afterwards, everyone got up and left out the back doors an headed towards the side yard. The real ceremony was tonight, and they had about half an hour until they had to go back home to get dressed up. Sasuke, Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji all sat in the grass, watching the clouds. Not ten minutes had passed before Naruto had gotten bored. He got up from the ground, and began to pace back and forth. Out of the corner of the eye, Sasuke could see Naruto, his constant motion was beginning to get on his nerves. "Oi, Naruto." the boy stopped pacing and looked over. "Why're you pacing so much? Just sit down for a bit." Naruto frowned, and spoke, "What if I can't find a job? I really want to be a teacher, but what if there aren't any positions open?" he said nervously. Sasuke shook his head, "Naruto, there will be _no_ problem with you finding a job. You'd be perfect with it, no matter what grade, you're great with people, and wonderful at explaining things. Not only that, but you're good with resolving problems, which is important for any teacher." he said confidently, "I want to manage a business of some sort, now that's probably going to be hard to do, it will most definitely be difficult for me to find a place to work at, but once I find one, I'm set." Naruto sat down next to Sasuke, "Thanks." he said, trying to relax into the thought of it being easy to find a job.

After that was over with, it was about time to go back inside, and leave for home to get ready for graduation. Naruto and Sasuke talked on the bus, the two would be meeting up at graduation and heading out for ice cream afterwards. The two went their separate ways off the bus, and began to get their clothes ready.

Naruto took a shower, and and got on his clothes, perfecting his outfit. Naruto grabbed out his concealer and re-applied it. He then began to do his hair, trying to make the spikes a bit neater than usual. Before he knew it, he was all done. He wore black loafers, and slacks. On top, he had a white and grey pinstripe button up shirt, with an orange tie. He had to be at the auditorium at 5:30 for the preparation.

Sasuke also took a shower, and perfected his outfit aftwards. Sasuke decided to leave his hair without gel today, and wore black slacks and shoes. He wore a light blue button shirt, and a black bow-tie. He was all finished with time to spare, he went down stairs to have a bit of dinner before he left for the ceremony.

After finishing their meals, both Sasuke and Naruto were driven over to the auditorium. When they arrived, everyone was getting on their caps, gowns, and ribbons. Sasuke and Naruto eventually met up, soon after, they were told to get in line. Single file, they were split in half alphabetically, and the first of each side met up, and began walking down the aisle in pairs to split up into their seat rows. Sitting down. The school principle, Tsunade, spoke, "I thank you all for coming. All of these wonderful students have worked so very hard to get here, and each one of them deserves something to celebrate them! I have been so honored to have all of you as students, and I wish you luck in your life ahead of you! Let the ceremony begin!" With that, she stepped off to the side, and names were called off, this was going to take a while.

By the time it came down to Sasuke and Naruto, it had already been around an hour, their row was called, and Naruto looked over to Sasuke, smiling nervously, "I hope I don't trip!" he laughed. Sasuke smiled, now _that_ would be emarrassing.

As they walked up the aisle, Sasuke was in front of Naruto, his name was called and he got up to take the paper from the man, shaking his hand. Another's name was called, then came Naruto's. He got up there, and did the same, smiling as he returned to his seat. Naruto bounced in his seat as he waited for the end of the ceremony to come. Sasuke smiled over at Naruto, watching the blond. He couldn't wait until he somehow got up enough courage to confess. But for the time being, he would have to deal with just being friends.

As the event came to a close, and everyone began to leave, the two boys went to meet up with Iruka. He found them, and took a picture of the two, Sasuke's arm draped over Naruto's shoulder, and Naruto holding out his thumb, smiling wide.

Iruka drove them over to an ice cream shop, where the two ordered their favorites. "I'm going to go grocery shopping, so you two can get a ride from me, or take the bus home, doesn't matter to me." With that, the man walked out of the shop to his car, and left.

Naruto decided to order chocolate and peanut butter on a chocolate dipped waffle cone, Sasuke went for vanilla on a plain waffle cone. After they ordered, they decided to sit outside, as it was a nice day. It was a bit funny, with them all dressed up at a small ice cream place. A few people passed by every so often, many giggling at the two together. One of them was bold enough to approach them, "You two look so cute together!" she said in delight, walking away. Naruto held out his hand, trying to convince her otherwise, "B-but we're just friends…" By the time he'd finished, she was already gone. Sasuke laughed at this, the look on Naruto's face was simply adorable, the boy was pouting as the girl walked away. "It's no big deal," he laughed, "it's not like we'll ever see her again!" This made Naruto grin, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

The two finished their ice cream in peace, and Naruto called up his father, "Dad, are you still out?" in which he replied, "Yeah, if you want me to pick you up I'll be there in ten minutes." Naruto smiled, "Thanks dad." with that, he hung up.

The two waited outside the shop for a while. Iruka arrived fairly soon, and drove Sasuke back to his house, Naruto came in, and pause for a bit, "Sasuke, there's been something I've wanted to tell you, I-" he began quietly, but was stopped by Sasuke's mother entering the room, seeing the two so close together, she began to leave the room, "Sorry for interrupting you, boys." she smiled. Naruto blushed bright red, and opened the door to leave. "I... I just wanted to say... good luck with the party?" he stumbled over his words. He walked quickly back to his car, leaving a shocked Sasuke at the door.

Iruka looked over to Naruto, "What happened?" he asked, concerned. "I almost told Sasuke, but then his Mom walked in." he said, embarrassed. Iruka sighed, "You surely can't let _that_ deter you!" Naruto smiled, "I _definitely_ won't!" he said, confidently. _'But really, it's not that easy.' he thought._

Thanks for reading! 

Wow! This chapter's really long XD

please review! =D


	20. Chapter 20

Hey everyone! Sadly I can't say that I'm happy with my reviews so far, but whatever! XD I'm writing what I feel like writing, so if you like it, cool, if not, then leave XD

Also, I've been reading this one story and I absolutely 3 it, by the writer is considering not writing anymore, because of the small amounts of reviews she gets, so please go and read _Target_, but gothpandaotaku! It's a great story, and I'm sure you'll love it! It'll mean a lot to them for getting reviews that they definitely deserve!

Please review! Enjoy!

After getting home, that night was terrible for Naruto. He couldn't sleep at all. Laying in bed, he thought of all that he'd done, the things he'd _almost_ done. Reflecting on all the _if's_, the things that could've happened, and what may have followed. Before he knew it, his alarm began to ring. It was already morning. A few days went by like this before Naruto decided to talk to one of his friends for advice, Shikamaru. He was great for talking to, and working out problems, besides, he had to get this over with today- the party was going to be tomorrow. So, he took out his phone, and started texting the other boy. He said, "Shika, since the party's going to be tomorrow, I need some help with a little something. I almost did something last time I saw Sasuke and I need help." He waited for a while before Shikamaru finally texted back, _'Finally.'_ he thought.

"Well, this is all going to be troublesome, but explain to me what happened, I might be able to help." he responded. Naruto started to type, "Well we went out for ice cream afterwards, and some girl thought we were a couple, it was kind of embarrassing, but it reminded me that I wanted to talk to him about that stuff. So after Iruka dropped him off at his house, I came in to say goodbye, and I decided to tell him then, and I started to confess, but his mom walked in." he concluded. Shikamaru got the text, "Things happen, Naruto, Sasuke seems like the kind of guy to take that well, so no matter how it goes, I'm sure things will be fine between you two." Naruto read this, and was filled with relief. Things could still be good between them, he was sure Shikamaru, of all people, would know Sasuke. He responded once more, "Thanks." he then put his phone down, and went down stairs to get something to eat.

Iruka greeted him from his usual spot in the living room, reading the newspaper. "Sleep well?" the man asked, looking over at the boys stance. He straightened up a bit, and put a smile on his face, "Yeah! I slept fine, how about you?" he asked, trying to keep his eyes open. Iruka looked at the other, not believing him, "Well _I_ slept like a log, don't you have that party thing to go to today?" he asked. "No, that's tomorrow." the boy replied. Iruka nodded, "Do you have everything you need for it?" Naruto shook his head, "No, I'm just helping Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Chouji set it up, and clean afterwards." Iruka nodded once more, "Then you'd better start getting your stuff ready, I'd hate for you to forget to bring something." he stated. Naruto smiled, "Thanks dad."

As Naruto headed up to his room, he could hear his phone vibrating, it read, "5 texts from Sasuke". Naruto unlocked his phone, and read them, "Hi." at 9:03, "Hey!" at 9:50, "We need to talk about the party." at 10:05, "So I already got Shikamaru and Chouji but I need to make sure Iruka knows you've gotta be here earlier than when it starts." at 10:10, and last, "You there?" at 10:22. Naruto looked at the clock, it was about 10:45, good thing he'd come up here when he had. He responded, "Yeah, sorry I was just getting some breakfast. I already asked Iruka, and he knows that I can come over early. When should I come over?" A few minutes later, he got another text, "Well since it starts at five, I figured you could come around one or two? That way, we have plenty of time to mess around, _and_ get ready, so there won't be too much of a rush for either of us." Naruto grinned, "Great! I'll be over tomorrow at two, but for now I've got to go, I need to get some stuff ready." with that, he put his phone down and headed over towards his dresser to get out a few clothes. Packing up his clothes, a toothbrush, some makeup, and face wash, he was prepared for the party.

Iruka greeted him as he came down the stairs, "You want to come shopping with me? I need to get some stuff for dinner tonight." Naruto nodded and put on his shoes. The two headed out to the store and were back later that night.

Iruka had been wanting to make a noodle dish, but he hadn't had enough vegetables for it. After returning for the store, he'd gotten a couple tomatoes, and an onion. He chopped them both up, and added them to a seasoned bowl of noodles and cheese. Naruto set the table, and they ate.

Naruto was fairly tired that night, so he went up to his room to go to bed. Sleep didn't come easily, though. He tried to sleep, but it wouldn't work, so he got up, and was about to set his alarm, but an idea struck him. He could draw, that usually helped him relax! Slowly, a figure came into his head. He began to shape a fine chin, thin eyes, and a smooth nose. Waves of hair came onto the paper, smooth, dark hair, he shaded and shaded until he saw what it was. He'd drawn Sasuke. What was he doing? He threw his sketchbook to the floor, and fell to his bed, soon falling into a deep dreamless sleep.

By the time he woke up, it was only from Iruka, pulling the blankets from him, and shouting at him to wake up. "Naruto! Narutoooo! **Naruto!**" Iruka yelled. Naruto still tried to roll over and sleep once more, but the noise wouldn't cease, so, he sat up slowly. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" he questioned, Naruto shook his head, "No... is it... nine?" Iruka sighed, "No, Naruto. If you don't hurry up, you're going to be late to Sasuke's party. It's 12:30, and you're supposed to be there at 1 or 2, I went out this morning because we we're all out of milk, and I ran into Kakashi, so we talked for a while, and by the time I realized that you hadn't called me yet, it was already 12:20, so I came home." Just about all of that had gone right over his head, "So what time is it again?" he asked slowly. Iruka looked over at him, "It's twelve-thirty in the afternoon, Naruto. You're going to be late if you don't get ready _now_." Naruto took that in, "Oh... I'm going to be late..." he closed his eyes again, "Wait... I'm going to be _late_!" he got out of bed, and shoved Iruka out of his room, heading for the shower. He shut the door, and was about to shower, he ran back to his room and grabbed some clothes.

He showered quickly, running out of the shower and throwing on his clothes. He brushed his teeth, and went back to his bedroom, putting away his toothbrush, and grabbing out his concealer, applying it , and sticking it in his pocket. He went back to the bathroom, grabbing his swim shorts from the drying rack. He checked his watch, it read 1:05. He ran downstairs, holding his stuff, and making a piece of toast. He buttered it, and grabbed a glass, pouring himself some milk. He stood in the hallway, fixing his hair. Iruka walked out, calling the boy over to the garage. The two hopped in the car, and headed to Sasuke's house.

By the time they got there, it was already 1:20, not too bad considering it was 1-2. Naruto walked quickly up to Sasuke's house, ringing the doorbell. He waved to Iruka, after hearing footsteps coming. As the door opened, Iruka began to drive away. Mrs. Uchiha was there, smiling brightly. Naruto blushed beet red. "Come in," she said, "Shikamaru's already here, and Chouji's coming at 2. They're up in Sasuke's room right now." Naruto muttered a thanks, walking awkwardly up the steps. "Naruto," she said, not letting him go just yet, "I don't exactly know what I saw last time your were over, but there's no need to be embarrassed about it, no matter what it was going on there." With that, she left. Naruto began to head up the steps, turning the corners to get to Sasuke's room.

He knocked on the door, and slowly opened it. Sasuke was the only one in the room at the time, "Shikamaru's in the bathroom." he stated. "Naruto, your shirts on backwards. "Oh," he said, flipping it around, "Sorry, I woke up at 12:30, and barely had enough time to get ready." he laughed. Shikamaru then walked in, and lay down on the bed. "So, how exactly are we going to set this up?" he asked.

Sasuke thought for a while, "Well, I thought that we could start in the kitchen with the party platters, but now that I think about it, that should come last, what with people bringing them later and all." Naruto spoke up, "So perhaps we should start in the living room, putting up streamers, then spread to the rest of the house that we'll be using. Also, we've gotta make sure that the pool area is ready, so bring out any speakers you have so we can play some music." Both Shikamaru and Sasuke nodded, this was going to be a _great_ party.

Thanks for reading! Please review! =D


	21. Chapter 21

Hello everyone!

Within the first couple days I was very happy to see many more people adding me to favs and alerts! And a few reviews! Thanks for sticking with me all the way up to now, and I hope you enjoy the story!

Please review :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, AU /Non massacre/.

Naruto struggled to reach the ceiling once more. On the tips of his toes, he just barely got it, before toppling over onto Sasuke and Shikamaru. Sasuke helped pick Naruto up, as Shikamaru Fell back to the floor, closing his eyes. "C'mon, Shika, we've gotta get this finished!" said Naruto, pulling him from the floor. With much convincing, the boy was finally up, putting the last of his streamers up. This time, for Naruto, Sasuke helped him up to the ceiling, putting the boy on his shoulders.

After repeating this a few times, the two were almost done, when the doorbell rang out right near Naurto's head. He yelped, and began to lose his balance. As Mikoto and Chouji came into the room, they were greeted with the two boys on the floor, holding various body parts in pain. Mikoto went over to help the two up and make sure they were fine, where Chouji and Shikamaru couldn't hold their laughter. Naruto pouted a Sasuke chuckle lightly, shocking the two others in the room. Sasuke stopped, looking over at the two, he immediately plastered a frown on his face and continued working. "You're such a killjoy, Sasuke." Naruto whined, still pouting. Sasuke looked back to Naruto from his decoration work, smiling. Naruto looked away, blushing, "Okay! Let's get to work now." he said, with a knot in his stomach. No matter how hard he tried, he always got that feeling when Sasuke did that, his heart would beat out of his chest, all making him sick, yet overjoyed in a way.

They continued to talk as they set up the decorations, talk of what they would be when they were older, future colleges, even people they liked. Shikamaru started it off, "I think I want to be a therapist when I grow up, how about you guys?" the three responded one by one, "I think I want to be some kind of teacher, maybe an elementary school one." Naruto replied, Chouji went next, "Well I've always loved food, and my mom is a chef, so I figured I could go in her footsteps as one." the boy concurred, next came Sasuke, "Well, my mother used to work in law, and my father is the head of a corporation, so I thought that I could go somewhere into business. Most likely a manager of our company, since Itachi will probably take over after my dad." Sasuke thought aloud.

Each could imagine one another at the job they wanted, Naruto was fun and good with kids, Sasuke had a good idea of what businesses would need, and could manage people well, Chouji loved food, and could easily get help learning how to cook at a higher level, and Shikamaru knew things. Even if you didn't want him to, somehow, the boy knew what was wrong, and he could work wonders as far as helping to fix them. Naruto was going to fill out a lot of forms to find out which place could give him the best scholarship, but he hoped to get into one close to Konoha. Sasuke, Chouji, and Shikamaru would do the same, but in the end it was up to them, all having fairly rich families. As the talk continued of jobs, Chouji brought up future families, much to Sasuke's and Naruto's chagrin.

Chouji continued speaking, "Well, I've thought about what I'd like as far as a family, but I really don't know. I really like Ino, but I din't think she'd go for a guy like me." he finished sadly. Shikamaru patted the other on his back, "She'll come around." Shikamaru went next, "Relationships are troublesome and all, but I've taken a liking to Temari, she left our old school last year, but I've seen her a few times since, I'll probably end up asking her out… someday." At this, the boys laughed, Shikamaru was such a procrastinator. Neither Sasuke or Naruto continued the talk of who they liked, so Chouji asked, "So, what about you two?" Sasuke put on a straight face, "Honestly, I'd rather switch subjects." he said, trying not to let himself blush, and doing a horrible job of it in the end. "How about you?" He looked over to the other. "Same," he looked away, cheeks growing pink, "why don't we start up on getting the pool ready? It's getting on four o'clock already, and people are supposed to arrive around five." The others nodded and moved from their spots.

The four headed out to the pool, with Sasuke in the lead. Going back to his tool shed, everyone grabbed a chair or two. Setting them up, they came back for more things, gathering a few tables. Barely holding all his stuff, Naruto quickly put down the furniture, bumping into Sasuke in the process. He quickly turned to see an empty space where the other was, and hear a loud clang of metal pool furniture, and the splash of Sasuke falling. Naruto began laughing, as Sasuke floated to the top, frowning. From a but behind him, Chouji and Shikamaru began coming at him to push the other in. As they pushed him in, Naruto managed to grab onto the them, pulling them in. As each boy began to surface, they all laughed. Hair soaked and matted to their heads, the four began to climb out, Sasuke running back inside for some towels. Stripping down to their underwear, they hung up their clothes to dry, also grabbing towels to dry off.

Sasuke used this as an opportunity to let Chouji and Shikamaru know Naruto a little better. Using the pool water and his towel, Sasuke wiped of Naruto's concealer. The boy immediately grabbed his towel, holding it over his face like Kakashi's mask. "Why'd you do that, Sasuke?" the boy asked, mad at the other. "You've really got to be able to go out without that crap on your face. You like fine with what's on you, cute, even." he said bluntly. Naruto blushed, and sputtered, "No way! I hate them!" With this bit of commotion, Chouji and Shikamaru began to come back from where they were headed, wondering what was going on. "But I don't wanna! They make me look weird!" he fussed. "Well then, show Chouji or Shikamaru, and they'll give you their opinions. If they agree with you, go on with what you normally do, but if they agree with me, at least try going out without that stuff, okay?" he asked pleadingly. Naruto sighed, he always had to give in to Sasuke's reason. "Fine. But I'm not gonna like it," he paused, looking to the others, "and you guys better not laugh." The two nodded.

Naruto lowered the towel, closing his eyes in the process. When he didn't hear any laughs, he cracked open his eyes, looking at the three with suspicion. "See?" Sasuke said, happily. "I don't see what the big deal is, really." Shikamaru said, "It's not like they cover up your whole face, or anything." Chouji nodded. Naruto relaxed a bit, "I guess I'll try." he said, still unsure. "Any friend of yours or mine is sure to be fine with a simple matter like this." Sasuke stated, eyes closed. Seeing Sasuke not paying attention gave Naruto an idea, grabbing his towel, he put it around the Uchiha's hair, messing it up. However, when he removed the towel, he found perfect hair, like always. "How does that even work?" he asked, utterly confused. The three others broke into laughter, and headed to the kitchen.

Grabbing a tablecloth and a few plates of food. Naruto helped spread it, an Chouji set out the food. They were finally all done decorating. While they were out there, Sasuke's mother came out, "Your father and I'll be heading out, you boys be careful, now, okay?" she sang, winking at Naruto. He blushed, and began rearranging some of the plates uselessly.

Sasuke lead the others into his living room, turning on the television, he sat next to Naruto. An Idol show was on, with this as it's premier episode. Everyone laughed as bad singers came on, while very few of them were any good. As Naruto laughed, Sasuke looked over to the other boy, and noticed him lightly shivering, getting up all his mental strength, he snaked his arm around the smaller boy's back. Naruto looked over in question, Sasuke continued to watch the television, "You were shivering." he replied, staring at the other from the corner of his eyes. To Sasuke's delight, the other didn't back away, but instead, moved more into his warmth.

Shikamaru looked over to the two, he caught Sasuke's eye, smiling and nodding in recognition. Sasuke smirked, and looked back to the television.

After the show was over, everyone was all dried off, so they went to get their clothes back on. It was a half an hour before the guests were supposed to arrive. It wouldn't be too good for the hosts to answer the door without proper clothing on, now would it? Even though plenty of the people coming would probably be wearing the same amount of clothing anyway.

When each of them were all dressed and combed out, it was getting quite close to five. They heard the doorbell ring, "It's probably Kiba," Sasuke said, "he told me he'd be bringing some drinks." Sasuke opened the door, "The party has begun!" he shouted, showing off the soda and liquor in his arms. "Do I want to know…?" he trailed, eyeing the drinks suspiciously. "Nope." the boy replied cheerfully, walking towards the table to put them down. "Now let's have some fun!" he shouted, popping open a drink.

Thanks for reading! I can't wait to write the next chapter :3

Oh man, and thanks to anyone who reviewed!

Wow, this chapter ended up really long XD

No wonder my hands hurt!


	22. Chapter 22

Thanks for any reviews, favorites, or alerts!

There is a small possibility that I won't be updating next week because I'm headed out to Colorado to visit my grandparents for a week. I'll try to stay up extra late to get this one finished early so I can start on the next one, but I can't make any promises.

Also, one more thing. As of 7/16 I've been incredibly disappointed in my readers. I usually look forward to hearing praise for my hard work and time spent on this story, but I don't always get that. I've figured that for about every 100 views, I get one review. That's pretty sad. So far, this story has had 11,640 views as of today at 11 at night. Frankly, it upsets me that only one out of one hundred of my viewers will take a few seconds to review a story they like. Not only that, but only a few of the people who have favorited this or put it on their alerts have actually reviewed! If you like it so much, review! In the end, it's really the only way I can actually tell if people like this story or not!

So, enough with my bitching, let's get on to this new chapter.

Please review, and I hope you like this chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, AU /Non massacre/.

As the party started up, people began coming in, one by one. A while after it had begun, everyone had arrived. Everyone sat down for a quick chat, many wondering what was up with Naruto's 'face paint'. Sasuke gave Naruto a reassuring glance, nodding his way. Smile wavering, he explained what had happened. There were many different reactions, Kiba, for instance, was happy to find someone else with a facial tattoo, where a few of the girls felt bad for him. Most of the other guys felt respect towards him for what he'd been through, and luckily, it didn't hurt the fun of the party, as Naruto bounced back with a smile on his whiskered cheeks. Sasuke patted Naruto on the back as they got up, ready for their next activity.

So the game begins. Everything goes. No matter what, you had to go, whether you liked it or not. Sakura spun the bottle, coming to a stop at Neji. She went over, and gave him a quick peck, going back to her seat. He then turned it, landing on TenTen. She blushed, and he leaned in for a kiss. Neji quickly backed away, blushing, eyes towards the floor. Most of the group laughed, seeing Neji acting in such a matter was _extremely _rare. Next, TenTen spun, landing on a wavering Lee. Soon after the party had begun, he'd grabbed one of the drinks that had been out, unfortunately for him, most of the drinks were alcoholic. At this point, he was having a time standing up, much less, talking. Lee frowned, and hiccuped, laughing at TenTen's luck. She turned to the other boy, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. Lee giggled, and spun the glass, landing on Sakura. She blushed, looking away as the boy hurriedly crawled over to her, kissing her on the lips, and surprisingly, she kissed back. Lee backed away, stumbling in the process.

The game continued for quite a while, most everyone had been kissed, or kissed someone, all except for Naruto. By now, almost all of the people had become just a bit tipsy. Naruto sat in his spot on the floor, pouting. Once again, it was Chouji's turn, this time, the boy got lucky. It was Ino, he eagerly headed over to the girl, leaning in for a kiss, she looked away and didn't respond, taking a quick glance at the oddly enough sober Sasuke. Once again, the other boy was staring at Naruto, studying him. She sighed, no matter how hard she tried to deny it, the fact that the two liked each other was painfully obvious. Looking back to the rest of everyone, she was slightly shocked as the bottle she'd spun slowed to a halt on none other than Naruto. She was freaking out, the boy _was_ cute, but with that glare Sasuke was giving her, she frowned. She went to Naruto, giving him a peck on the cheek. Sasuke's frown lessened, glad that Naruto's first kiss hadn't been stolen. Naruto laughed, spinning the bottle quickly. Slowly, it landed on Sasuke. Naruto blushed, looking to Sasuke, who was staring at him in anticipation. Naruto turned his head, glowing beet red as he looked at Sasuke, staring him down. He leaned in, inch by inch, staring at the other's lips. _'What am I gonna do?'_ the blond fretted. Where Sasuke was thinking, _'Could he go any slower?'_ Sasuke had never been too patient, so this taking as long as it was, he gave up. Putting his hand on the back on Naruto's head, he pulled the other in for an passionate kiss. Naruto felt a rush of relief spread through him, Sasuke had initiated it, that _had_ to mean there could be something between them! The two slowly backed away, a small bit of spit stringing between the two. Naruto awkwardly reached up to wipe it away, blushing. Sasuke spun the bottle, landing on Kiba, the boy groaned, as Sasuke went to get it over with, getting him on the cheek.

After all of that, everyone was getting a bit bored. Surprisingly, the action had kept everyone entertained for quite a while. It was going on 6:30, so Sasuke suggested everyone grab something to eat and head out to the pool area. Everyone had been told to wear a swimsuit underneath their clothes, as for a no problem change. Sasuke lead everyone out to the pool area, where towels were already spread out on the chairs. A few of the guys watched as the girls stripped down to their suits, waiting for the guys to get ready. As they stripped down, Naruto took a bit longer, still not entirely comfortable thinking of the position he was going to be in. Sasuke, ready for the pool, came up behind him, "Naruto, no one's going to notice anything, okay? It's going to be alright." he said, calmly. Naruto relaxed, and in one large pull, Sasuke yanked the boys shirt of, and pulled him into the pool without warning. Coming to the surface, he spluttered, glaring daggers at Sasuke. "Naruto, your glares are about as effective as a kitten's." This made Naruto's frown deepen, as everyone chuckled. Sasuke laughed, and pounced on the other, playfully wrestling with the boy.

Everyone had jumped into the pool, some leaving the group and getting more food, and some heading back to the living room to talk. After a while, conversations calmed down, and there were few left in the pool. Sasuke was getting a bit worried, Naruto had left for the drink area many times through the night, and feared for his friend's health. As Naruto came back to get in the pool, Sasuke stopped him, "Naruto, I know this is probably the first time you've been able to drink alcohol like this, but you really shouldn't be having so much, why don't you come over here and sit down with me for a bit, he motioned towards a tree. Naruto reluctantly nodded, grabbing his towel and heading for the tree. Sasuke sat down first and patted the spot next to him, Naruto sat. The boy began shivering once again, and Sasuke hugged the boy close, keeping him warm.

Naruto looked over, he slowly leaned in, kissing Sasuke unexpectedly. Sasuke's eyes opened wide, with shock, he responded, kissing back. After a while, he realized the problem. Naruto would never do something like this, and he certainly couldn't let this get out of hand, as Naruto was _obviously_ drunk. He tried to push the other boy away, who continued to giggle, "You're so-so silly, Sssasukee!~" he sung, trying to get closer. Sasuke stood up, "If you want to tell me something Naruto, tell me when you're not drunk off your ass." With that, he left to talk with Shikamaru.

Naruto stumbled around for a bit, grabbing some food along the way. Slowly, he sat down on a couch, and spread out, falling into a quick nap.

Time flew by as everyone chatted, after another hour, Naruto woke up, a headache beating through his skull. Sitting up, he walked around, trying to find Sasuke, "Sasuke! Gimme some water!" he yelled at the other boy. He sat up, "You alright now? You were acting a bit funny earlier" he said. Naruto blushed, remembering a bit of what had happened, "I am _so_ sorry for that," he put his hand over his mouth in embarrassment, "I had _no_ idea what I was doing..." he trailed off. Sasuke was a bit disappointed that he didn't, frown deepening. Naruto looked back to see Sasuke lost in thought, with a grimace on his face. Thinking about it for a bit, Naruto grabbed the other boy's hand, leading him up the stairs. After they were out of sight from everyone else, Naruto began to speak, "I'm just going to say this fast, ask questions later. Ever since I first met you, I've really liked you. At first I thought I just liked you as a friend, but now I'm sure that it's much more than that. I completely understand if you don't like me like that, but after that kiss, I just thought you-" the boy was quickly cut off by a kiss. "You really shouldn't just leave yourself open like that, not paying attention. I just couldn't help myself." he said smoothly. Naruto laughed, "So, then, you like me?" he asked, wanting a real answer from him. "Yes, Naruto, I do." the boy stated simply, hugging the blond. Shikamaru appeared as if out of nowhere, "I don't know what you guys have been up to, but we've all decided to play a few rounds of truth or dare." he droned. The two smiled, "I'd love to play!" Naruto put out, grabbing Sasuke's hand. "Let's play!" he shouted, dragging Sasuke down the stairs.

This would be a fun night, indeed.

Thanks for reading!

Please review if you liked this chapter :I


	23. Chapter 23

Hello everyone! Thanks for any reviews, favorites, or alerts! After this chapter, just so y'all know, there will probably only be two or three chapters left, just for a warning, that may or may not include the epilogue I'll write XD

Also, please don't take this as me _begging_ for reviews, I'd just really appreciate it if anyone who actually reads my story and likes it could tell me what they like or what they don't like! I need feedback if this story is going to get any better, and I rely on my fans for that. If I don't get reviews I'm still going to write it, so no one has to worry about that, it just always makes my day to see an email about a review on here!

Also, I am SO SO SO SORRY for being so late with this, I was up hiking in the mountains and there's no service up there!

Sorry!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

"There you two are!" Sakura said, standing up from the couch. She frowned, "You guys better find time to do what you were doing up _there,_" she pointed to the ceiling, "for later. Right now, we've got stuff to do!" Sasuke grinned mischievously, "Well, it is _my_ house, and _I've _got things to do too." he wiggled his eyebrows. Sakura blushed, "Wow! I didn't know you were capable of even _telling_ a joke, glad you came around, Naruto." she patted him on the back and sat down. "Now lets play a game!"

With everyone sitting in a circle, the game began, "Sakura, truth or dare." They didn't have much time, unfortunately, it was getting fairly late. "Truth." Naruto nodded, and closed his eyes in thought. Naruto, trying to be nice with his questions, asked a simple one, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Everyone laughed, they knew he wouldn't be one to ask a deep or personal question, with how innocent Naruto could be at times. "A nurse of some sort." she replied simply, "Now, truth or dare... Ino!" she sighed, "Truth." she replied, resting her chin on her palm. Sakura giggled, "Do you still have that big crush on Sasuke," she pointed over to the two boys, close together. "ah?" she blushed, and looked away, frowning, "No." she pouted. The game continued on like this, most people respecting each other's boundaries, and surprisingly, it didn't get too out of hand, not many dares, in fact.

As the night progressed, many people started to leave, some needing rides from parent's because they didn't have cars, and some just leaving from sheer lack of energy. By 12:10, only the four that were staying overnight remained. As the door shut when the last person to leave went out the door, everyone got up. "Alright, so my parents are going to be home early tomorrow, as will Itachi. We have to get all this mess cleaned up before they get back." he droned, moving his arm from left to right, showing all the garbage littered around. So everyone went to work. Sasuke went into his kitchen, grabbing a garbage sack for each person. Soon, they made a game out of it, trying to throw in as much trash as they could at once. Slowly, piece by piece, the living room was clean, hallways were spotless, and the pool area was all squared away for the night. Finishing up, they all decided get ready for some well deserved rest.

The four of them headed up to Sasuke's room, getting out their stuff they all began to strip down to their night clothes. Both Naruto and Sasuke wore pants, where Shikamaru and Chouji had full night clothes, with button up shirts included. All of them brushed, and decided where to sleep. Sasuke has an air mattress spread out on the floor, both Shikamaru and Chouji would sleep there, where Sasuke and Naruto would sleep on the bed. Grabbing out a comforter for the air mattress, Sasuke threw it at the two, effectively knocking them over. Chouji picked up a pillow, throwing it at Sasuke, who dodged, letting it hit Naruto. "Oh, I'm sorry-" he tried to apologize to Naruto, but was cut of with a pillow to his face. Standing up on the bed, Naruto yelled, "Pillow fight!" and continued to throw pillows and Chouji and Shikamaru, who threw them back. In the end, the floor was covered with pillows and blankets. After trying to pick up a few, Naruto plopped down on them, "I give up. I'm sleeping here." he mumbled through the sheets. The three others agreed, and followed his actions. Sasuke went next to him, wrapping them both in a blanket. Snaking his arms around the smaller boy, he kissed his forehead, "Goodnight." he whispered in the blond's ear. Smiling, both drifted off to sleep.

Unfortunately, Naruto didn't stay asleep. He was wide awake at four am., with no idea why. He hadn't slept too well, and he thought back to recall the reason. Since the day Naruto had met Sasuke, he'd been thankful for him being there, the other had made Naruto's life so much better, hell, he'd _saved_ his life. The boy needed to tell him about this, he knew he wouldn't be able to catch any sleep if he didn't. He remembered what Sasuke has said earlier about waking him up, tentatively, he reached out to poke Sasuke awake. The dark haired boy stirred, slowly rising from the bed. "What's wrong, Naruto?" he mumbled, yawning. Naruto looked down, "There's something I've been needing to tell you, it's been nagging at me for awhile now, and if I want to get any sleep, you've gotta hear me out." the blond slowed to a whisper, "When I first met you, things weren't doing the best for me," he paused, "I was new, and didn't have many friends, the only person I could really talk with was Iruka. I had a very hard time with some of the people at school, and because of what went on with them, I slipped a bit and started going deeper and deeper into my own sadness. I didn't know where to turn next, and I was planning on just ending everything for myself. It was really the only option I thought I had." he took a breath, "That day when I was taking all my stuff home, it was because I didn't want Iruka to have to come back to the school. I was really going to do it. But then, you came along. You cheered me up, and made me feel worth something. I kept saying to myself, "When he leaves me, I'll do it." But you never did. I hadn't had a problem anything like it since, Sasuke. You saved me." he cried.

It took Sasuke a while to take all of this in. _'What if I _hadn't_ decided to talk to him? That would have been horrible.' _he thought sadly, tears beginning to pool in his eyes. "Don't ever think like that, Naruto," he spoke softly, "you're worth more than that." Wiping the tears from his eyes to save embarrassment, he spread out on the bed, pulling Naruto close to him, pulling both into a sound sleep.

Sun shining brightly through the curtains, the boys slowly began to wake up. One by one, they stood up, stretching and yawning. Looking over to his cell phone, Naruto announced the time, "Well, guys, we sure did sleep late!" he was already nearing eleven am. as they walked down the steps. Sasuke's mom was making breakfast, pancakes, and they four sat at the table. Their parents would get here around twelve. "Mm! These are delicious, Mrs. Uchiha!" Naruto praised, the other boys nodded in agreement, continuing to eat.

After the boys were all done, it was around 11:30, so they headed upstairs to pack their stuff, after they had all their stuff done, Naruto began to help Sasuke clean, as did Chouji and Shikamaru. When they were done with that, Iruka came, and soon after, Chouza, and Shikaku. Sasuke thanked them all for coming, giving Naruto one last hug before he left, blushing, the boy hurriedly walked back toward Iruka's car. As he climbed in, Iruka began to speak, "So, how did the party go? Have fun?" he smiled, "Yeah! It was _awesome_! We played a lot of fun games, and swam, and got to hang out for a little while, and we got Sasuke's house clean!" Iruka laughed, "That _does_ sound like a lot of fun! What did you and Sasuke get into?" he asked, out of curiosity. Naruto didn't respond at first, turning lightly red, "Well, we... hung out, you know?" he laughed nervously. Iruka peered over at the other, "What happened now?" he questioned, not beveling the blond. "Eheh, well, you see, we kind of talked, and... I've got a new boyfriend?" he said, raising his arms up in question. Iruka smiled, "Told you so."

Everyone had left Sasuke's house, so the boy took some time to sit down in the living room and watch a bit of television. "Did you guys all have fun?" his mother asked. Sasuke nodded, "Yeah." Mikoto giggled, "What'd you and Naruto do?" Sasuke turned red, stuttering a bit, "N-not much. We hung out a bit." Eye twitching, he went back to watching a show. Mikoto laughed, "You know that I _know_, right, Sasuke?" He looked over to her, eyes squinting, and nodded, "Yeah, I figured." Shaking her head, she went back to washing the dishes, "Boys." she muttered, smiling.

Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it, and I'll see you next week!

Please review!


	24. Chapter 24

Hello, everyone! Thanks to everyone who reviewed! For everyone who has disabled messages or someone who doesn't use an account to review, I'll be replying through here, so if this applies to you, read the next part, and if not, skip to the story! XD

randomKittyX3: Thanks for reviewing once again, and nice, glad you found what you missed XD

And to "herself", if you're still reading this, thanks for reviewing and all, but I'd appreciate it if anyone who reviewed actually gave me feedback, as that _is_ the purpose of having the review system, not to just say "reviewed", or "good", but to say, "I liked this one part, but I didn't like this other part", all because this is to help writers improve their stories!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

The next few weeks were nice for both Naruto and Sasuke, only dating for a few days, the two just couldn't get _enough_ of each other, wanting to hang out every day that they could. First, they went out for ice cream, which ended up in a mess because of a dog who wanted Naruto to share, then, they went out for a walk in the park, where they were rained on, and had to go home, and lastly, the two had tried to go rollerblading, which ended up with both of them bruised from a nasty fall they'd taken.

But they certainly weren't going to give up now, both spent a few days thinking of something they could do, and finally decided on a group thing, calling up a few of their other friends, they planned to go to an amusement park, checking the weather and everything, they made sure that this coming Thursday would have perfect weather for them.

They called Sakura, Lee, Ino, Chouji, Shikamaru, Kiba, Hinata, and Shino, unfortunately, Hinata and Shino couldn't come, but the rest of them could. Scraping together some money for it, Naruto luckily found enough to get in. This particular park cost about forty dollars to get in, but they were able to ride every ride there and stay until the park closed. Time to plan. Naruot began writing everything out, making sure they would get together two days before somewhere to make sure everyone was ready. "Everyone should all bring at least 50 dollars, as they would need to buy some food. You can bring some drinks and food for in the car, and even sneak some in if you don't want to pay." he continued to write, "The people who have cars and have offered to drive are: Sasuke, and Sakura, they both have five person cars. You can chose who you'd like to sit or drive with." "I think that covers it, eh, Sasuke?" he asked happily. Sasuke smiled, "I'm sure it does, that pretty much covers everything." he spoke. Naruto grinned, hugging Sasuke.

Naruto did some work around the house cleaning, and playing some games online. Then, on Wednesday, they gathered at a local park, and sat down to plan what they all wanted to do. There were enough rides for them to be there all day, so they decided to stay there from opening to closing times. They would all meet up Sasuke's house on Thursday morning at 5 am. It would be a one hour drive to the park, and they opened at 8 o'clock in the morning, so they wanted to make sure to have some extra time.

Everyone agreed, and chose cars. Sasuke would be driving Naruto, Shikamaru, and Kiba. Sakura would be driving Ino, Chouji, and Lee. They would all bring around fifty or sixty dollars and would be ready to be there all day. Each person would bring their phones, and if they split up for a ride, they would text each other, letting one another know where they would meet up afterwards.

The next morning, Naruto stumbled out of bed, groaning, it was four thirty in the morning. He'd gone to bed early enough that he'd slept for eight hours, but no matter how much sleep he got, he always felt tired this early in the morning. Stepping into the shower, he began to clean himself, piece by piece. He got out to shave, and then started to dress. He got out an exercise bag and filled it with a few drinks, and some cereal and protein bars. Halfway through packing his food, Naruto heard a knock on his door. He'd been planning to wake up Iruka and ask if he could borrow the car, have him drive him over there, or ever walk over to Sasuke's. He walked over to the door, and was surprised to see Sasuke, smiling at in his doorway. "Morning!" he greeted, almost too cheerily for this time of the morning. Naruto grinned, "Morning." he ground out, still half asleep. Sasuke shook his head, "How much did you sleep?" he questioned, walking into Naruto's kitchen, closing the door behind him. Naruto went back to packing food, "I got eight hours, Sasu, but somehow I'm _still_ tired." he frowned. "Well, that's no good, maybe you should take a nap in the car?" he asked, concerned for their busy day ahead. "No, I don't think I'll be able to manage." Sasuke sighed, and grabbed Naruto's hand and bag full of snacks and money, "Let's go," he said. Naruto started to speak, "But I haven't had breakfast yet-" Sasuke shushed him, "I thought I could take you out to the diner for a good old fashioned breakfast." he smiled. Naruto paused, "That actually sounds... _really_ good." the blond replied, laughing.

Sasuke opened the car door, looking down to his watch. It was now 4:19, they both had about a half an hour or so before they would have to leave for Sasuke's house. Naruto ordered one belgium waffle, to Sasuke's surprise. He ordered an omelet, waiting for the waitress to leave, "You know those are really big, right?" the boy asked. "You obviously haven't seen me eat breakfast before. When I eat, I _eat_." he grinned, "But don't worry, I'm not too hungry today." Sasuke smiled, "Well, either way, as long as you can finish in less than forty minutes, we're good, my house is about two or three minutes away, and as long as we get back to my house by 5:03 am. we'll be fine."

They waited about 10 minutes before they got their food, the place wasn't busy at all so they didn't have to wait long to eat. Naruto poured out some syrup, and Sasuke sprinkled on some salt. Both enjoyed their meals, not talking during their breakfast. Naruto finished first, leaving a square on his plate, "You want a taste, Sasuke?" the man shook his head, "I don't really like sweet things." Naruto pouted, "You're not even going to _try_ it? This one doesn't even have syrup on it!" the other sighed, giving in, "Fine." With that, Naruto shoved the piece into Sasuke's mouth, making him mumble in surprise. "I didn't think you were going to do _that_!" he said, coughing, trying to keep it down. Taking a gulp of water, he spoke, "Now have a bite of mine." Naruto nodded, opening his mouth. Sasuke laughed, feeding the blond. "Now that wasn't too hard, was it?" Sasuke frowned, "No," he sighed, looking down at his watch, "are you all finished?" he questioned. Naruto nodded, "Yeah, I'll get the receipt." Sasuke shook his head, "It's on me." he replied, grabbing it from the waitress as she came by. Putting down a tip and heading back to the register, he smiled to Naruto, still pouting at him for paying. "Are you ready to pay?" the cashier asked, Sasuke nodded, handing her to receipt and some cash. She gave him the change, and the two walked back to the car, it was 4:52 in the morning, great timing.

The two got back to Sasuke's house by 5:01, stepping out of he car, Naruto stretched and grabbed his bag, walking towards Sasuke's house. Sasuke rushed over to the door, opening it, and holding it for Naruto, motioning him inside. As the two quietly went to the living room to wait for everyone to arrive. Sasuke grabbed for the remote, turning on the news channel. He went to the sidebar, seeing that it would be a nice temperature of 83 Fahrenheit at the hottest. Today would be perfect! Sasuke stood up as he heard a knock on his door, it was Sakura, who had picked up Shikamaru, Chouji, Lee, Ino, and Kiba. Sasuke went out to see her car, by the time she'd gotten to the door, everyone was still piling out of the car. She laughed, "Ino had to sit on Chouji." Sasuke chuckled, "At least it was a short ride, right?" Sakura giggled, "Yeah, I would guess so!" After everyone had gotten inside the house, they all began to get ready for a fun, long day.

Thanks for reading!  
>Please review and I'll see you later!<p> 


	25. Chapter 25

Hi!

I DUN GOOFED

I posted chapter 5 instead of 25, because I mark it as 2.5 'cause it's my second story!

I posted this from my phone, thank you Beebee forthwright! I AM SO SORRY

DEAR GOD THIS IS EMBARRASSING

Oh god, I'm so sorry! I CAN'T BELIEVE I DID THIS! D:

I thought I posted the chapter around 11 yesterday, but it turnes out all I did was put it in the document manager! Sorry, guys!

Unfortunately I've only gotten TWO reviews for this new chapter so far :\

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, especially the people who have reviewed every chapter, or at least every-other chapter! I think this may be the last chapter, or the second to last chapter before the epilogue. I really want to end this, but I know that I haven't focused too much on their relationship together so for the next bit that'll be the main focus.

Also, I'm going to be getting a beta when this story is complete, so if any of you have any feedback for me on this story, PLEASE review or PM me on the subject of what you think should be changed, I'll be trying to make this the best I can before finally marking it as "complete".

Please review and I hope you enjoy the next chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

After packing all their things into the car, everyone piled in. Both drivers knew the way, so even if they got separated, they would still all get to the park in time. Driving along, Sasuke, bored of the silence, tried to start up a conversation, which, unfortunately was met with silence. Naruto was asleep, Shikamaru was looking out the window, and Kiba was playing a video game. Sasuke sighed, "Naruto?" he was met with silence once again. Focusing on driving, other thoughts began popping into his head. _'I wonder what rides we'll go on... or if Naruto can stand to. He'll probably be a bit scared, but I can _definitely _help him with that.'_ he smirked. Naruto mumbled in his sleep, "No, they're gonna get... you~ run away..." Sasuke began to chuckle, reaching one arm over to wake Naruto. He startled awake, hitting his head on the window. Sasuke began full out laughing, "Dobe! Be more careful!" Naruto crouched in pain, Sasuke putting his hand on his back, "Are you okay?" he asked, still laughing. He mumbled, "Sasuke, it _hurts_." leaning back on the window, he closed his eyes again, "Teme." Sasuke smiled, "Yeah, you're fine."

For the rest of the trip, there would be small conversations, mostly of Naruto, asking if they were going to be there soon, or getting overexcited about one of their new rides. Recently, they added a new ride called "Aviator", or something like that, it was a fairly short ride, but it went incredibly fast, having multiple sharp turns and giant drops. Naruto always ended up getting freaked out on these rides, but he loved the thrill. "And you'll probably just have a straight face the entire time, huh?" he giggled, it would be exactly like him to not even yell on a scary roller coaster. "You know me so well," he joked, "I'll just sit still the entire time while you won't stop moving." Naruto pouted, "Well, it's only fun if you can yell!" Sasuke smirked, looking over to Naruto, "If you say so..."

Checking in to the parking lot, Sasuke and Sakura parked next to each other, getting a close parking space because of the time of day. It was around 7:40 when they had unpacked their stuff, and had all of it sorted out. Everyone would stay with another person so that it would be harder to get lost, making sure that at least one person in each group has a cell phone. If they got lost, at least everyone knew to meet up at the new ride during the parade. A lot of people would go to the parade, so when that happened, most of the rides were fairly empty.

First off, Sasuke and Naruto went with everyone to the big drop. Usually it was busy, like every other ride here, but with how early it was, there was almost no wait. It took about ten minutes to get on, this one was one of their favorite rides. It started out, and went up about a hundred feet in the air, slowly coming to the peak. Then it rushed down, screaming was all around. It came up once again, then cut into a sharp turn, slowing down as it went up another climb, and coming down into a tunnel. Naruto gripped Sasuke's hand, looking over and grinning. Reaching behind the other man's head, he pulled out his cheeks as the camera flashed. Sasuke frowned "Well, _you_ weren't going to smile, so _I_ did for you!" he grinned cheekily.

The ride came to a stop, and the group split up, walking around and finding their favorite rides. Naruto grabbed Sasuke and ran to the tower. It was a huge drop straight down from high up. Naruto was shaking with excitement, this time, the line was fairly long, about a twenty-five minute wait. Sasuke frowned, looking up at the tower. He saw the people, getting on. They all looked mixture of emotions, scared, excited, happy, and a few of indifference. He hoped he could seem unfazed by the ride, even if he surely wouldn't be.

After the wait, the two slowly walked up to the ride, Sasuke, still trying to mask his nervous feelings, and Naruto, happy as ever. Sitting down, and buckling themselves in, they were all ready to go up. Every but Sasuke, that is. He looked away from Naruto, closing his eyes and trying to not look down. He put on a crooked smile, looking over to Naruto and grabbing his hand. Naruto smiled, holding tight. As they neared the top of the ride, Sasuke's hand held tighter, and tighter. Naruto grimaced, "Sasuke, can you loosen your grip?" he frowned, "Sorry, hadn't realized that I'd-" Sasuke stopped talking. Looking around, he realized that the ride had stopped. Peering left, right, left, right, he choked out, "Naruto... what's going- AAH!" he screamed, the ride dropped. Faster, and faster, Naruto held Sasuke's hand, bringing it into the air. They yelled together, as the ride went up and back down again. Slowly, it came to a stop, and everyone got out. Sasuke, still shaking, wobbled out of the ride. _'Well, I guess _I_ was the one who needed calming down this time._' he grimaced. Naruto gripped his hand tighter, "See? You're fine!" he laughed, Sasuke shook his head, "Never again." Naruto giggled, nodding his head.

The day continued like this, going on ride after ride, some, scarier than others. Naruto texted a few of the other groups, it was rolling around to lunch time, and Naruto was hungry. Lucky for him, so was everyone else. They all met up near the food court, splitting up to find food. Naruto, of course, ran for the only place that could possibly have ramen. He frowned, "Aww no ramen." Sasuke came behind him, "Why don't we get a hotdog or a burger, then? That's really the only kind of food they have here." Naruto's frown deepened, "Fine." he dragged out, "I just want ramen." he laughed, "I'll make you some when we get home, then, love." he said, hugging Naruto to his side. He went up to the stand, and came back with two burgers, going back to the table with everyone else. Naruto begrudgingly ate his food, glaring at it all the while. "You're nothing like ramen." Everyone at the table laughed.

After the group split up once again. Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru went to one of the rides, it went straight forward, then straight up in the air, and back down backwards. Ino was scared, but wanted to go on it anyway. Shikamaru sat on the left, Ino in the middle, and Chouji on the right. Ino whimpered is the ride started up. Looking all around, she was thoroughly scared. She suddenly felt a warmth around her left hand, looking over to Chouji, she smiled. She'd never really thought about her feelings towards him, but she figured it would be a good idea, he was a nice guy.

So far, Naruto and Sasuke had been on all the rides that Sasuke was comfortable with, there were a few that Naruto still wanted to go on, but he didn't want to leave Sasuke out. Grabbing his hand once again, he lead him back to one of the rides he liked, and they rode a few of them again.

It was time for the parade. Running through the crowd was hard for everyone, it was difficult to get through in some places, where families had settled down on the ground to see what would come walking by. None the less, they all made it back somehow. Naruto yelled over to everyone else as they walked up to the line, "Woo! Aviator!" Sasuke laughed. Looking up to the ride, he was fairly frightened by the idea of riding it, with the people on there now, they were all screaming, and being tugged around on the ride. He felt a sudden warmth, and looked down to see his hand covered by Naruto's. Grinning, the couple walked forward to be on the next coaster.

Time went by fairly fast now, the line grew shorter and shorter, and before they knew it, they were hopping on the ride. By now, everyone was nervous. This ride looked intimidating. Naruto smiled again, leaning over to Sasuke, he gave him a quick peck on the cheek, "This is going to be awesome." Sasuke didn't respond, afraid his words would betray him, just nodding instead. Climbing into the cart, everyone put on their belts, and protectors, making sure they were all locked in for the ride. Once everything was all checked out, the ride began to hitch forward, on an incredibly steep climb. Sasuke looked over at the rest of the ride, '_Oh god...'_ But before he had time to finish, the ride stopped dead in its tracks at the top. Before anyone could say a thing, it dropped forward, speeding on. Immediately, hands were latched onto each other, and the screaming commenced. Sasuke yelled at the top of his lungs. Right, left, up, down, the ride continued to make sharp turns. It dropped once more before finally coming to a stop in front of the line at a screeching halt. Shaken, everyone began to get out, shaken from the extreme ride.

Slowly, everyone walked back to the car. It was ten at night, time to go home.

Thanks for reading, please review! :D


	26. Chapter 26

Hello again!  
>I would like to apologize to <em>all<em> of my readers for my mistakes in the last chapter. It's about time for me to go back to school, and I'm about to go into high school, so there's a lot of stuff that I still have to get ready. I barely finished it on Friday morning, and then, instead of posting it, I just forgot to and closed my computer! Then, when I realized my mistake the next day, I updated, and the thing is, I mark my stories by which one it is, my first story is just ff1, ff2, but my second is ff2.1, ff2.5, so you see how I could mistake ff2.5 for ff2.25 when I'm in such a hurry!

Sorry once again, I'll try to make it up by posting this one with the right chapter, _and_ being on time!

Also, have any of you guys been in 10th grade geometry? I'm going into 9th grade advanced math and I am _freaking_ out. I got a book on it to help me get a head start, but I'm really worried about how much homework I'm going to have! I'm only taking three advanced classes, but I'm still freaked about how much work I might have.

School is starting next week for me, so from now on I'm pretty sure this will be the last chapter before the epilogue. Just to warn you, it may take me around three weeks to write it in my spare time.

Please review and I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its' characters.

Warning: Yaoi/Shonen-ai, swearing, some dark themes. Normal world universe, **AU** /Non massacre/.

By the time everyone got back to Sasuke's house, they gave up on the idea of going home. "It's fine if you guys crash here, as you can see, I've got plenty of space to spare." he announced, motioning around the room, "You guys can sleep down here on couches, or up in my room on a sleeping bag, either way." With that, the man went to his room, with a few people following. Naruto groaned, slowly making his way up the steps. "Sasuke~ I'm _tired_." Sasuke laughed, "Then sleep, dobe." The blond, too tired to retort, made his way to Sasuke's bed, plopping down. Sasuke dropped to the bed on the other side, reaching over to hug Naruto. Everyone fell asleep in no time.

The next morning, Sasuke's parents woke to a full house, people were everywhere, some had taken up couches, a few people even tried to share one, whereas a couple people had just given up and spread out on the floor. Mikoto giggled, turning to Fugaku, "I guess they were a bit too worn out, huh?" The man nodded, leaving to get ready for work. She sighed, he never was one for humor. She went to make breakfast, and would be on her way to work soon, too.

Around eight am. most of them had woken up, a few of them had jobs to go to, and left in a hurry, others were more lay back.

Naruto woke up with a quick yawn as he stood up out of bed. Looking over to Sasuke, he grinned. The blond slowly leaned over to him and began poking him. Sasuke began to wake, "Mmmph, Naruto... stop... what're you fuckin' doin'... I'm still _tired_..." the man tried swatting away at the other's hand. Naruto laughed once again, "Rise and shine!" Sasuke tried burying himself further into the covers and pillows, "What time... is it?" he asked, to which the blond replied, "It's about ten fifteen." Sasuke groaned, sitting up and getting out of bed. Walking towards the bathroom, he soon came back, then left down to the kitchen. By now, Shikamaru was the only one left on the first floor. The man was still snoring away, seeing this, Naruto giggled once again, hopping towards the other. He then started to vigorously poke Shikamaru. The man moved around, trying to avoid to pokes, to no avail. When he finally opened his eyes, Naruto skipped away to the kitchen to grab something to eat.

Naruto had fixed an egg and cheese omelet. Cutting it into three pieces, he served it on the table, and sat down. The three dug in, still hungry from last night. Both Sasuke and Shikamaru complimented Naruto's cooking, as they finished off their breakfast. Both Shikamaru and Naruto needed a ride home, so Sasuke hopped in his car with the two, going to Shikamaru's place first. The man thanked him for the ride and went inside. Next was Naruto's house, as they came back around, Sasuke stopped the car before they were in the front, leaning over to give Naruto a full kiss, he opened up the door, "See you later." the man grinned, leaving Naruto blushing on the sidewalk. Going up to his house, he let himself in, greeting Iruka. "Was it fun?" he asked, standing up to give Naruto a quick hug. Naruto, still a bit pink replied, "Yeah, it was awesome!" Iruka smiled, "So what did you guys do all day?" Thinking back a bit, the blond answered, "We rode, like, all the rides. The new one, and that one that goes really really fast, _and_ we went on the great drop thing!" Iruka chuckled, "That's great! But one more thing... how late were you guys out? I thought you were going to be home last night but I figured you probably had just crashed with Sasuke." Naruto put his hand behind his head, "Yeah... we were out pretty late, we left at closing time and got home around eleven or so, not too bad, but we all just went to bed at his place, everyone was spread out on the floor, or on couches!" he laughed. Still laughing, Iruka went to go take care of some bills, "Let me know if you need anything."

Naruto headed up stairs to think for a while. He'd applied for a few jobs so far, but there was one that he really wanted. It would be a waiter at a fairly nice little restaurant. For an entering wage, it was more than the other jobs if you had any experience. He had one other job as a waiter, but had quit to focus more on school. This place was a bit more high-class, so you had to wear formal attire to work, but the blond couldn't care less, with this kind of money, if he was able to find someone else to live with, he could easily get a smaller apartment. A few of the businesses were interested in him, including the fancy restaurant, so now all he had to worry about was who he'd be moving in with.

_'I'd totally move in with Sasuke, but I don't want to just go and ask him about that, then have him turn me down... that would be really awkward.'_ The blond flopped back down to his bed, grabbing his phone. He'd talk about it lightly with Sasuke, not letting him know he was thinking about _living_ with him, just whether he was going to move out any time soon. He texted Sasuke, "Before college starts, are you thinking about leaving home?" Five minutes later, Naruto found his phone buzzing, "Yeah, I was actually wondering about that! Would you want to bunk together? I found a really cool job at this little shop down the street from my school." Naruto was ecstatic, replying after he scanned over the text, "Yeah, I've been wanting to go to our state university, it's a pretty nice college, and my scholarship from them is the biggest out of the other ones. And frankly, I really don't want to be staying at home when I'm in college." A few minutes later, Sasuke texted back, "I wanted to go to one a bit further from yours, but it wouldn't be too much of a problem considering both of our schools would only be about 15 minutes away from the apartment complex I found."

Conversations continued like this, they'd figured out what they were going to do. Once they got their jobs, they would continue to save up money each month, Naruto still needed to buy a car, but he could get Iruka to help pay for that. Heck, he might even be able to convince the man to pay for his first month of rent. Sasuke didn't really have to worry about that, already having a loaded bank account, and parents who were willing to pay him each month for living costs.

Things were really looking up for their relationship, with them living together and all, they would really be able to see how compatible they were together, if they could really stand living together.

After a few days, both had gotten calls from workplaces, with one more interview, they would be hired. The two had talked about what they would make and pay for. Before they knew it, Sasuke and Naruto had moved in together, having their furniture sorted out and everything organized. Their relationship was going great, and so was their life. With the jobs they had, they were ready to go to college in the next month, and get ready for a better job. This thing they had was _definitely_ going to go just fine.

Sorry about the shortness of this chapter! I've been a bit distracted by the first chapter on my newest chapter, it's already up to 4,000 words :o

I'm going to actually try and make it a longer one XD

Thanks for reading, and the epilogue to this will probably take two or three weeks, with my school starting in a few days and all.

Please review! :D


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